Force of Nature
by charrrr
Summary: Yves Benedict and Jessamine Maxwell used to be friends. Now, they're complete opposites and barely even say hello to one another. After a terrible disaster, they're drawn into each other's lives once again. But with both of them keeping secrets from each other, the daily life of high school, and a literal nightmare coming to town, will their relationship survive?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: So, here's the first chapter. If you've read my other stories, you'll know that in _The Best of You_ Yves and Jessamine are together, so no spoilers there. This story will go through how they got together (this first chapter is set before _A Pocket Full of Soul_ too, if you pay attention to the dates), then I'll probably time jump once we catch up to the events of TBOY so you get to see their relationship after that story... If that makes any sense haha.

As I mentioned in the last chapter of TBOY, this will also be a Uriel story. Yves' story is my main focus but you will still get plenty of Uriel, I promise!

The story title comes from the lyrics of Glitterball by Sigma and Ella Henderson.

Oh and I almost forgot, big thank you to Alaska Crystal - I was struggling a bit on how to start the story off and her advice really helped me.

* * *

 **11th January 2013**

A school bus holding twenty odd teenagers was bound to be noisy, but a bus full of football players and cheerleaders celebrating a victory at an away game took noisy to a whole new level. It was coming up to half past seven in the evening but no-one, except perhaps the two coaches sat up front, was tired out from their long afternoon on the field. They were all in good moods, shouting and laughing at each other, music playing from mobile phones and people singing alone.

The head cheerleader, Jessamine Maxwell, was sat near a window, clutching a hand mirror as she redid her dark blue lipstick. Honestly, she didn't even like the colour but it went with the blue cheerleader's outfit she wore and all the girls wore it so that they would match.

"I'm so frustrated man, I haven't had sex in over three weeks now," she heard one of the boys say in the seat behind her.

Rolling her eyes, Jessamine put the lipstick and mirror back into her black Givenchy handbag and stood up, stepping over her friend's bags on the floor and into the aisle of the bus. In the two seats behind her, Zed Benedict had the one closest to the window, and a brown haired jock named Isaac sat in the aisle seat. Unsurprisingly, it had been Isaac that had spoken – he was the resident male slut of the school, with Zed coming a close second.

"Now, now," Jessamine said to Isaac in a teasing tone. "At least think of the positive side of this. No girls having sex with you means no girls are hating themselves right now."

As Zed let out a burst of laughter, Isaac narrowed his eyes at Jess. "You can be such a bitch sometimes, you know that?"

His response didn't surprise her. She and Isaac had an ongoing thing where they teased other mercilessly and were never nice to each other. She suspected he actually had hateful feelings towards her, but that wasn't anything new. She was used to people not liking her; it was what she wanted.

"You can say that all you want," Zed spoke up to his friend, smirking. "But you still wanna fuck her, don't you?"

Jessamine grimaced a little. It wasn't just the fact that both Isaac and Zed were a year younger than her that she wouldn't jump into bed with either of them, but it was the fact that they'd both had sex with almost all of the other girls on the team. Jess didn't want any of her girls' dirty leftovers, thank you very much.

"God no," Isaac shook his head. "No offence, Jess. You're totally hot and everything, but I'm pretty sure your boyfriend would kick my ass if he even heard me saying that I wanted to."

"Parker's not my boyfriend anymore," Jess said at the same time as Zed called his friend a scaredy-cat.

As the two boys started arguing with each other, Jess decided that she'd had enough of talking to anyone and slid back into her seat, leaning her head against the window. She grabbed her iPod and plugged her earphones in, turning up the volume until she could no longer hear the cacophony of chatter coming from the others. Her muscles were aching from dancing all afternoon, and unlike the rest of them she actually wanted to use this opportunity to relax some.

It was getting dark outside, the rain pounding against the glass of the window, and she saw flickers of lightning in the sky. A big storm was coming, but it seemed like they would get back to the school before the storm became seriously bad.

Just as Jessamine closed her eyes and started to relax, the bus suddenly jerked to the left. She instantly sat up straight again and took her earphones off, hearing the squeal of tires as the bus continued to swerve. One of the girls towards the back of the bus screamed and Jess could feel the panic rolling through everyone on the vehicle.

"Everybody put your seatbelts on!" One of the coaches shouted, loud enough to get through to everyone. "Now!"

Jessamine stared out of the window as she started fumbling with her belt, tugging and tugging at it in an attempt to wrap it around herself. But the seatbelt was stuck and wouldn't budge. Tears sprung to her eyes as her breathing sped up, and through the window she saw the bus coming to the edge of a steep ravine.

Jessamine wasn't the only one that started screaming when the bus started to tilt. Losing all hope with the seatbelt, she perched on the edge of her seat and wrapped her arms around the seat in front of her, praying that it would give her some stability at least. However as the bus flipped onto its side, her sweaty hands slid from the leather seat, her legs slipping under the seat she'd been holding on to as she slipped forward, her bottom now on the floor of the bus.

She didn't have a chance to rectify the problem as the bus continued to flip, over and over and over again. Her body jolted around in the small space and she felt the shocking pain of something in her left leg snapping as it was constantly smashed against the steel side of the bus. Her left shoulder too was crushed against the metal, and her neck was in agony from being thrown around. She had no control over her own body, and that was almost as terrifying as the crash itself.

The window above her smashed and glass rained down upon her, cutting deep into her skin. Her screaming increased when she caught sight of a huge shard of glass imbedded in her left thigh. The blood oozing over her bare skin made her feel nauseous but the sickness feeling went away when her head cracked against the side of the bus and her vision started to go blurry.

When the bus finally stopped rolling and landed on its side, Jessamine found herself stuck and in so much distress and indescribable pain that she couldn't even try and drag herself out from under the seat. She was laid on her side, legs twisted under the seat, arms floppy at her sides, and her head flat on the floor.

She could feel the rain coming through all the broken windows and felt like she would end up drowning to death from it.

It was silent around her and she didn't know if that was because everybody was dead and not making a sound, or if she was in such a state of shock that her senses just couldn't focus on anything but the pain. She hoped it was the latter.

 _I'm going to die,_ she thought to herself as she laid there, waiting for somebody to help her seeing as she couldn't help herself. She pictured her parents' faces when they heard the news that their daughter, their only child, was dead. Her poor Omma and Appa, they'd be devastated.

Jessamine closed her eyes and could have sworn she smelled her Omma's town-famous blueberry cheesecake. It was soothing and made going to sleep so much easier.

* * *

Yves had been having a typical Friday night for him when the phone call came. He'd been in bed reading an autobiography of a scientist he admired when he heard his mom shouting. Phone calls had been made to the rest of the family, and they'd all met up at the hospital.

It was pandemonium in the hospital waiting room. Family of the students and coaches involved in the crash were all crammed into the room, all the seats taken and people now sat on the floor too. Many were pacing back and forth, demanding that the passing nurses give them news about their child.

Yves slumped back against the wall on the chair he was sharing with his brother Will, looking around at the rest of his family. His mom and dad were comforting each other and reassuring their sons that Zed would be okay, and Trace was on the phone to Georgie who was at home with Gracie. Victor was one of the many people pacing and looked miserable, but that was no shock really – Hazel, his soulfinder, had left him a couple of months ago and this left him constantly in a bad mood.

A scream drew his head towards the door of the waiting room. A woman was sobbing, her partner clutching onto her looking shocked. Their child was dead, Yves realised. The second one to die from the accident, along with the bus driver.

The news brought an even sombre mood to the room if that was even possible and Yves sat quietly, listening to the hushed chatter going on around him.

When a doctor came into the room, they all looked up but he wasn't asking for Zed Benedict's parents unfortunately. Yves knew that Zed was a tough guy, but in an accident this serious how would it be possible for him to walk out of here with no injuries? He was so worried about his little brother, unable to sit completely still.

Yves jumped to his feet, feeling the need to do something instead of just waiting around. He walked over to the vending machine, pressed the coffee button, and inserted the correct amount of coins. As he waited for his coffee to be made, he saw a familiar face enter the room.

It was Parker Zimmerman, one of his classmates, wearing his trademark leather jacket and tight black jeans. Instead of his expression being in its usual cocky grin, he was pale and looked terrified. Of course he would be here, Yves silently thought. Parker's girlfriend, Jessamine Maxwell, had been on the bus and of the students that he'd already seen leave, Jessamine hadn't been one of them.

Parker met Yves' eyes and gave a subtle nod of the head. Once upon a time, they'd been friends. It'd been a group of them in elementary school: Yves, Parker, Jessamine, Travis, and Lauren. They'd grown apart in middle school and by now Parker was Zed's friend instead of Yves'. Parker looked away, eyes scanning the room before he strode towards a corner of the room.

Yves grabbed his coffee and took a few steps in the direction Parker went. Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell greeted Parker, Mrs. Maxwell looking tiny next to the two men. Yves leaned against the wall and hoped it didn't look too obvious that he was eavesdropping. He wasn't very fond of Jessamine anymore, but his memories of their past together made him want to know if she was okay.

"Have you heard anything?" He heard Parker asking them in his deep, gruff voice. "I got here as fast as I could, I had to find a babysitter for my sisters. Mom's working. Jessamine's alright, isn't she? She has to be."

It was the first time in years Yves had heard Parker sound like he actually cared about someone and he had to admit that it was a surprise to him. He and Jessamine didn't exactly seem to have the best relationship; they were constantly splitting up and then getting back together again. He inched a little closer as Mrs. Maxwell answered Parker, knowing that her heavily accented voice had a quiet tone to it.

"She's stable," Mrs. Maxwell said in a steady voice, clutching onto her husband's hand. "She has a dislocated shoulder, broken elbow and wrist, whiplash, broken ribs, and a punctured lung. What they're most worried about are her head and leg injuries. One of her legs is really damaged: a shard of glass went almost all the way through her thigh, her knee's shattered, and a lot of bones are either cracked or broken. It was crushed and they're concerned about the loss of blood to the leg."

"So what does that mean for her?" Parker snapped, running a hand through his dark blonde hair. "They can fix it, right?"

Mr. Maxwell answered as tears sprung to Mrs. Maxwell's already red, puffy eyes. Tears were becoming a very common sight in this room. "They're not sure, son. They're trying their best but it was a serious trauma to the leg, they may end up having to amputate it."

" _Fuck,_ " Parker cursed. Yves saw his hands clench into fists and half expected Parker to punch the wall. He always had had anger problems and solved his issues with fights at school. "You said they were worried about her head injury too. What's going on there?"

"I guess she knocked it pretty hard," Mr. Maxwell informed him. "There's swelling on her brain. They've induced her into a coma to give her body a chance to reduce the swelling, and she's on a ventilator to make sure she gets plenty of oxygen to her brain. They're going to monitor her carefully to see if they can take her out of the coma in a couple of days."

"That's it? There's nothing else they can do? But she might die! Surely they have something else in mind," Parker replied, sounding panicked.

Mr. Maxwell shook his head, face as serious as it always had been. "As soon as she's well enough to travel, I'm going to have her transferred to a hospital in Cleveland. A buddy of mine from college works there and he's one of the best doctors I know. There's no-one that I would trust more to help her recover."

Yves tuned them out and started to drink his coffee now that it'd had a moment to cool down. _Poor Jessamine,_ he thought to himself. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like to be in that much of a state. This kind of accident was something you never imagined would happen to people you knew, and those injuries were things you thought you would never have to see.

He stayed there for another twenty minutes, listening to the conversations around him and hearing about the conditions of the other students. The football team and the cheerleaders were the popular crowd at school, therefore not his friends and many of them he didn't particularly like, but he still felt glad that it sounded like nobody else had been fatally hurt. It was tragic that two of them had died, but at least it wasn't a bigger number.

When he saw his family gathered around a doctor, he squeezed his way through the crowd of people to reach them. He slid up next to Xav and asked him what the news was.

"He's fine," Xav said, a smile on his face. "God knows how but he only ended up with a broken arm, whiplash, and a concussion. He was lucky. They're keeping him in for 48 hours for observation, but we can go see him."

Thank God, Yves breathed a sigh of relief. After hearing some of the worse injuries that the students had – Jessamine wasn't the only one with a bad head injury by the sounds it – he'd seriously been thinking that they'd find out Zed was in a critical condition too. He had seen a few leaving with just broken bones or cuts, but it was just a game of chance over who was fine and who wasn't. He wasn't a religious person, but he'd been praying and his prayers had been answered.

As he followed his family into Zed's hospital room, he pictured his younger brother looking a mess and crying because he'd been so scared in the moment the bus had crashed.

He found that yes, Zed looked a mess: his left arm in a sling, a bandage around his head, and cuts all over his skin. But instead of being a mess over the disaster, he had a frown on face. "I can't believe they're making me stay in here. Just think of my motorbike – she's all alone in the school parking lot, she needs me. Ugh. I hate hospitals."

Yves rolled his eyes. That comment was just typical Zed. Clearly the accident hadn't affected him in the way they'd all thought it would. Yves wondered if anything would ever make Zed have emotions.

"Least you'll be out by Monday so you can go back to school," Yves answered, laughing when Zed groaned and shot him a glare. "Just think of all the attention you're going to get."

He wasn't entirely joking about this either. In a small town like Wrickenridge, something exciting and newsworthy rarely ever happened. He predicted that people would be talking about this crash, and the recovery of the survivors, for at least the next couple of months. And as terrible as it sounded, he couldn't help but think: _I am so glad that I'm not a sports kind of guy._ Yves wasn't a selfish person but those thoughts were at the forefront of his mind.

If he'd been into sports and on the football team, he would have been on that bus when it crashed. He would have been hurt, maybe seriously. He would also have tons of attention on him when he went back to school, people staring and whispering behind his back or giving him pitying glances. At seventeen years old, he had managed to get through high school without too much attention on him and that was the way he preferred it. No reason to change that now.

So he was devastated for everybody else, mostly his brother of course. But he was so utterly relieved for himself.

* * *

Author's note: Hope you liked it! If you were a little confused about the "Omma and Appa" part, Jessamine is Korean (well, half Korean - her mother's Korean, dad's American) and Omma and Appa means mum and dad. At least, I think it does - if you're Korean or know the language and I'm wrong, please tell me so I can correct it! :)

Please favourite/follow/review the story if I've caught your interest.

 **A hint about the next chapter:** Jessamine wakes up.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: The response on the first chapter was wonderful, I really appreciated the reviews :) I hope you like this chapter too.

* * *

 **14** **th** **January 2013**

It was strange, Jessamine thought to herself. It was strange that people could tell you loads of information all in one go, yet you could still get the feeling that they were keeping secrets from you.

From the moment she woke up half an hour ago, her Omma had been fussing over her. Fluffing her pillows, brushing her hair, dabbing perspiration from her forehead. During this, her Appa reminded her about the accident and told her of her injuries and why she had been in a coma for three days. His voice was tense as he spoke and she noticed that he was finding it difficult to meet her eyes. What was he hiding from her?

Parker was stood across the room, leaning against the wall with his arms folded against his chest. He looked as handsome as he always did, but more exhausted. There were dark shadows under his eyes and whereas he was usually clean-shaven, he now had stubble framing his face. His clothes were rumpled too, as if he hadn't changed out of the same outfit for days. He looked concerned for her, which gave Jessamine a flutter in her chest; it was nice to see that he cared about her despite all the trouble that had gone on between them.

Jessamine felt disoriented, which she guessed was to be expected. However she wasn't in an absolutely terrible mood – she barely remembered being on the bus and her parents were telling her that she was okay now, and why would they be lying to her? She knew that with her head injury she was lucky to be alive and decided that she could deal with the pain in her whole body if it meant not dying. Always look on the bright side, and all that.

"How is everyone else?" She asked. Jessamine had an American accent as she'd been raised in Wrickenridge, which seemed to surprise strangers as they always thought she'd have a Korean accent like her Omma; this irritated her greatly.

"Fine?" her father replied, again averting his eyes away from her face. "You shouldn't be thinking about them right now? Focus on getting better yourself?"

Jessamine frowned. His reply had been spoken like a question even though it wasn't and she knew that he always lifted his voice at the end like that when he was hiding something; he was an awful liar. This just confirmed her earlier suspicions. "Tell me the truth," she demanded, trying to sound tough. Her voice came out weak and raspy though, much to her annoyance.

He didn't reply, but Parker did. "Steven, Sun-Hi," he addressed her parents, looking grim. "I know you're trying to protect her and don't want her getting worked up so soon, but she deserves to know the truth." His eyes drifted over to her and softened a little. "Jess, most people are okay. A lot of them are already at home, but it wasn't all good news. Bradley Hathaway and Bryony Green didn't make it. I'm sorry."

Bradley and Bryony were dead? That just didn't feel right. Bradley was the nicest guy on the football team – he looked strong and intimidating, but he was a sweetheart really. Volunteered at the children's hospital, rescued animals in his spare time. And Bryony… She was the newest member of the cheerleading team, and the youngest at just fourteen. Jess had been the one to invite her to join them after seeing so much potential in her. She was a lovely girl, admired all the older ones so much, especially Jess – she'd constantly followed Jess around and asked for her advice on everything.

Now they were both gone. It was so sad, especially when it hit her that they would have been terrified in their last moments. What a horrible way to die, especially at such a young age. She knew that it could have happened to her, but they were all she was thinking about right now.

"There's a memorial being held for them at the school this evening," Steven informed her. "You won't be able to go though, unfortunately. You're not well enough to be discharged. When you are discharged, we're going to Cleveland. You know, where my old friend Nathan works? You're going to need time and extra care to recover, as well as physical therapy, and his hospital offers all of that. I've looked into renting us a house over there because I'm sure we'll be there for a while. Parker could even come and visit for a weekend every month or so, that'd be nice for you, wouldn't it? I'm sure you'll be on the phone to him all the time still anyway."

Jess didn't bother telling him that her and Parker had split up a week before the accident – he never paid attention to when they were on or off again. Truth was, she hadn't told him this time because she'd thought they'd be back together by now. Isn't that how it always was between her and Parker?

One thing Steven said stuck in her mind and she gave him a confused look. "Wait, Appa. You said I need physical therapy. For my shoulder and arm?" Her entire left arm was encased in a cast, as well as being held in a sling to support her shoulder, which had become dislocated in the crash. Her arm and shoulder both ached, but she didn't understand why she'd have to go all the way to Cleveland for it. Surely it would be okay once the bones had set?

Her Appa shifted awkwardly on the spot, clicking his tongue in his mouth like he always did when he was nervous. She was aware of her mother sat on the bed next to her, stroking her hair gently and whispering a lullaby in her first language – Jess sensed that this was more for her Omma's comfort than hers.

"Uh, well…" Steven started, looking lost for words. "Jessie, you may you want to look at your leg."

"What?" She responded. It wasn't the reply she'd been expecting and if anything it left her more confused. She remembered him saying her leg had been hurt but that was all, and she wasn't even in any pain from her leg really, just a tingling sensation.

Slowly, she pulled the thin hospital sheet from her body. There were nasty scratches all over her right arm, an especially jagged one of the back of her hand. As the sheet fell onto the floor and she looked at her legs, her eyes widened. She shook her head as if she were shaking away an imaginary image.

But this was real.

Her right leg was bruised and cut up, but otherwise fine. Her left leg however… Well, it wasn't there anymore. The top of the leg was there, but her knee and below was gone. The bottom of her stump was wrapped tightly in gauze and bandages, and there was a long, ugly scar marring her thigh.

Jessamine simply stared at it, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. She couldn't speak, wasn't even sure she was fully breathing. Then finally, for the first time since she had woken up, she started crying. It wasn't quiet crying either. Loud, heavy sobs wracked through her body, her cheeks instantly damp. Her nose was running and she was screaming as well as crying, but she didn't care.

This would ruin her life! She couldn't carry on cheerleading now, which affected her whole future. She hadn't been relying on it for a scholarship, her Appa made more than enough money to pay her way through college. But she loved to dance and had wanted to make a career out of it, at least part-time anyway.

It wasn't just dancing though. Would she even be able to walk again? What if she struggled too much with a prosthetic? She was an athletic person, was on the school's track team, and liked to stay in shape. This would make all of that so difficult for her.

Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her against a hard chest. She breathed in a musky scent, recognising instantly that it was Parker holding her. Slumping into his arms, she cried and screamed and shook with fear at the unknown future ahead of her.

* * *

"It sounds mean to say this, but I feel like the accident was some cosmic Karma."

Yves looked up from his homework and gawped at his best friend, Travis McIlroy. They were sat at Travis' kitchen table, both dutifully working their way through their AP Physics homework. Travis' mom had been in charge of decorating the house and the kitchen had ended up being painted a bright yellow, which Yves actually found was calming and cheerful. It was a dark contrast to Travis' dark skin as he leaned back against the wall.

"What do you mean?" Yves asked, surprised at the turn of the conversation. He and Travis weren't really ones for gossiping.

"Exactly what I said," Travis shrugged a bony shoulder. "Practically everyone on that bus had bullied someone at one point in their life, and if they hadn't done the bullying themselves, they'd enabled it by not telling their friends to stop. Your brother included, no offence. They were popular so of course they had massive egos and didn't think much of us unpopular people." Travis sounded bitter and Yves didn't blame him. Being intelligent and as skinny and scrawny as Travis was, he'd been the victim of many bullies over the years so it was justified that he wouldn't feel really sorry for them all.

"Not all of them were like that," Yves felt the need to point this out. "Bradley was alright to us. Remember that time he was your partner in history and you two did the best project in the class? The girls could be catty, true, but Katherine's a nice girl. Strange, and in her own world often, but not particularly nasty… We used to be best friends with Jessamine, and even though we're not now she's never bullied us, and she has told the others to stop on certain occasions."

"Yeah, but not all the time. She might not bully us, but that's only because we don't exist in her world anymore. All I'm saying is that sometimes people aren't good people and they get what they deserve – none of them deserved to die, of course not, but they needed something like this. Maybe now they'll realise life is short and leave us alone."

Truthfully? Yves doubted this would happen. It wasn't impossible, but it was highly unlikely. The most likely situation in his opinion would be that they'd enjoy the attention and constantly remind people of the accident, such as the teachers, so they would go easier on them. It was high school – that's just what the popular crowd was typically like. They had the confidence, so why shouldn't they?

"Did you hear about Jessamine?" Yves asked Travis. When his friend gave him a curious look, he continued. "My brother Xav volunteers at the hospital, remember? Well, he told me that he saw her records and she's had her leg amputated. Can you imagine that? Apparently when she found out, Xav was at the end of the corridor and heard her just start screaming. Oh, and Joshua White had three fingers amputated because they were so badly damaged.

"I get where you're coming from by saying that it's Karma, Trav. I just don't think you should go around saying things like that at school and making trouble for yourself – plenty of people are upset about this, and many are going to need a while to recover. Zed acts like he's okay, but he keeps having nightmares about it."

"Fair enough," Travis replied with a quick nod of the head. "Just answer me one thing though, Yves. If we were going to a chess competition and our bus was involved in a crash like that, do you really think people would care as much as they do about these lot? The whole town's involved now, but if it was us half of them wouldn't even know who we are. It's not fair that they have everybody talking about them and worrying about them and fussing over them – they don't deserve our sympathy after the way they treat us."

The tone of Travis' voice had been getting angrier as he went on, until the point where he was talking through clenched teeth at the end. Yves didn't really know how to respond to this. He understood where his friend was coming from, sure, but it didn't change the fact that he _did_ have sympathy for his classmates. He'd never personally been bullied himself – his brothers' reputations protected him – but he'd seen it happen to many of his friends and it really upset him.

He just felt that to not feel sorry for his classmates, not even a little bit, would make him a bad person.

Travis' fury scared him. Growing up in a house with three old sisters had taught Travis that to survive, he should get his own back on those who wronged him. Was this the moment he'd finally snap when it came to his classmates? Yves didn't think Travis was capable of seriously hurting anyone, but there was a steel look in his eyes that suggested he wanted to take some course of action against his tormentors if this continued. Yves decided that he'd have to be careful and keep an eye of Travis to make sure he did nothing that would freak people out whilst they were recovering from the crash.

As his phone vibrated in his pocket, Yves pulled it out and looked at the message that appeared on the screen. It was from his dad's phone which surprised Yves because Saul usually hated texting and just called people instead. When he read the message, he guessed that it had been sent out to all his brothers as well, which would explain the text instead of a call.

 **Come home now. There's an official from the Net here to see us. It's important.**

Well, wasn't that just the perfect thing to put fear in his system.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** The Benedict family are visited by a Net official; Jessamine settles in at her new home in Cleveland.


	3. Chapter 3

**21** **st** **January 2013**

Their new house in Cleveland was lovely and far too big for just the three of them, Jessamine decided. It was only a rental and wasn't nearly as big as their home in Wrickenridge, but it was lovely nonetheless. It was decorated with antiques, a contrast to their modern décor at home, and had two stories with a large garden out back. No swimming pool like they had at home, which Jessamine was already missing.

What was supposed to be a study on the first floor was now her bedroom. The desks had been pushed against the wall to make room for her furniture: wardrobe, bed, and TV stand. It also gave her plenty of room to navigate her wheelchair.

She was already finding out the downsides of being in a wheelchair. It was extremely hard to push with just one hand considering her left arm was still in a cast so most of the time her Omma was pushing her around; then there was the fact that the downstairs bathroom only had a toilet and sink, so when she wanted a bath her father had to carry her upstairs; the house's thin corridors weren't built for a wheelchair user, making it a tight squeeze; and most of all, she had to rely on other people for almost everything seeing as she was still rather weak from the accident, and she hated that. She had always been independent so this was a huge struggle for her to adjust to. She'd been told that she would eventually get a prosthetic leg, but she was nowhere near being ready for that yet.

Jessamine was laid in bed watching TV just like she had been doing almost 24/7 since moving here two days ago. Her Omma was out somewhere, her Appa upstairs working. Steven Maxwell was a pretty well-known politician in Colorado and was involved in a lot of decision-making, making himself a very wealthy man over the years. Last year he'd declared that he wanted to step down from politics and follow a different career path: being an author. Although he still worked in politics now, it was much more part-time and he'd been writing a book. Jess had no idea what the book was about as he wouldn't even tell his wife and daughter, but she predicted that it would most likely be something boring like politics.

Steven had promised Sun-Hi that he would check on Jess every hour, but he hadn't been down for the past three. Which was good, because she really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone – the whole past week since she awoke from the coma, she'd been pitying herself and sulking in a miserable silence.

She looked away from a TV show about house hunting abroad and grabbed her mobile from underneath her cushion. 78 missed calls from her friends and 52 missed calls from Parker. She appreciated that they all cared enough to call to see how she was but she hadn't answered or returned any of their calls. If she wasn't going to talk to her parents, why would she bother talking to them?

She had a number of text messages too, but she only opened up the ones from Parker and read a few of the most recent ones.

 **~ jess answer ur fckn phone! this isn't fair I cnt believe ur doing this to me call me back**

 **~ am sorry for swearing but plz answer I just want to speak to u I want to see if ur ok. am sorry for hurting u again u no that I luv u plz dnt do this**

 **~ ur dad sed u told him am still not allowed to visit cuz u dnt want me there? I dnt understand plz call me I miss u I need to hear ur voice**

 **~ ok I get that u need space to deal wi this so am gna stop phnin now but I want u to no that u can call me anytime n I'll answer no matter wat cuz I luv you. I respect u dnt want me around rite now I hope ur ok n the doc there gives u help u need. I luv u n I'll see u wen u get back**

Jess almost rolled her eyes. Parker was always terrible with his spelling and punctuation when it came to texting, something that annoyed her a lot yet he never changed despite knowing just how much it annoyed her.

His texts brought tears to her eyes so she turned the phone off before she replied and dropped it onto the duvet. She wanted so badly to reply but knew that she would regret it: she couldn't face him, couldn't face anybody.

It had surprised her how much it'd hurt Parker when she pushed him away…

 _It was the third day after she'd awoken from a coma, and yet again Parker walked through the door as soon as visiting hours started at 10am. He was skipping school which wasn't really a rare event – he was constantly in trouble for his attendance, however Jessamine guessed that the school would let him off for these circumstances. He held up his hands, revealing a carrier bag in each one._

 _"_ _I got you some magazines to read, you know those celebrity gossip ones you like? Lady at the shop gave me a right funny look when she saw what I was buying," said Parker with a low chuckle. "My sisters made you some cupcakes too – they're not the best, but what can you expect from five year olds? At least they're edible," he shrugged and put both bags on the tray at the end of her bed._

 _Jessamine looked him over, his average height, muscular build, and handsome face. He was far too attractive for his own good and when he focused those blue eyes on her and she saw the adoration for her in them, she faltered. For a moment there, she pondered not following through with her plan of what to say to him today. He'd never been this sweet to her and he was showing that in spite of everything he did truly love her._ No, _she told herself silently._ Say what you were going to say. You don't want him around, and he shouldn't have to cope with you like this.

 _"_ _Why aren't you at school?" She sullenly asked him. "Or even work?" Parker worked at a hardware store to earn cash to help his single mom out with the bills._

 _"_ _The store doesn't need me in today. And school… Well, let's just say I know for a fact all people will do is ask me how you are and I'll probably end up punching somebody for it, so it's better off if I'm not there, believe me. Besides, you won't let anyone else visit you and your parents have work so they can't always be here; I'm not just going to leave you to be on your own all day."_

 _She frowned at him, not letting herself be taken in by his words. "That's what I want though, Parker. We split up for a reason and I'm not just going to forgive you for kissing someone else just because you're coming to the hospital every day!"_

 _Parker looked confused. "You've forgiven me before, just like I've forgiven you for kissing other people at parties. It's what we always do, to tease and hurt each other."_

 _"_ _You think that's what a relationship is supposed to be like?" She raised an eyebrow._

 _"_ _Well no, but that's what we've always been like. It always spiced things up for us. I don't want to constantly split up anymore though, Jess. Almost losing you has made me realise that. Just give me another chance and we'll work to make this better, I swear I won't hurt you again." He started to sound more desperate as the conversation went on, but Jess had already shut herself off to her emotions, unwilling to let this affect her decision._

 _"_ _Fine, but I don't want that, Parker. I don't want to date you anymore, I don't want to be friends, and I don't want you to visit me in here anymore. I certainly don't want you coming to Cleveland. What I do want is for you to leave me the hell alone. Leave, and don't come back."_

 _"_ _This is bullshit!" He exclaimed, getting angry instead of sad like he almost always did. He started pacing and she saw his fists clenching and unclenching as he tried to get his anger under control. "You're doing this because you're scared about your leg and you're worried that your life is going to change completely! That doesn't matter to me though, I don't give a fuck about your leg – I still want to be with you!"_

 _"_ _What about what I want?!" She shouted, which got his attention as he stopped pacing. "I want you to leave." Then, she delivered the final blow that although untrue, she knew would destroy him and make him leave. "I don't love you anymore, Parker."_

 _Parker froze, looking at her in disbelief. The door behind him opened and Jessamine saw one of the hospital volunteers slip into the room. She recognised him instantly as Xavier Benedict. She'd spent so much time at his house with his younger brother Yves when she was younger, that she was familiar with the whole family and knew who was who. Xavier had been the volunteer assigned to assist her and keep an eye on her during his shift, so it wasn't a surprise that he was here._

 _Xavier looked back and forth between Parker and Jessamine, at both of their tense bodies and stormy expressions. "Is everything okay in here?" He directed the question at his patient._

 _"_ _I want him to leave," she answered, now unable to meet Parker's eyes. "He won't go."_

 _Xavier looked at Parker. "Do I need to call security? If Jessamine wants you to go, then I think you should. We don't want to cause her any unnecessary stress that will impact her recovery, do we?"_

 _"_ _No need for security," Parker huffed. "I'm leaving."_

Jessamine knew that she may as well as have just punched Parker in the balls that day. Might have hurt him less, even. No girl ever said they didn't want Parker when he went after them so he definitely wasn't used to being rejected, especially from Jessamine who always went back to him. However it wasn't just that. She hadn't know he'd cared about her so much until he realised that he could have lost her forever.

She wished that there had been another way to push him out of her life without breaking his heart, but it was inevitable. He'd been right: she was scared about her leg and what that meant for her future, and she didn't want him to see her like that. She'd always been 'perfect' when she was around him and she didn't want to find out how he'd treat her when she was no longer perfect. Besides, who would want her as a girlfriend now? Parker deserved a girl that wouldn't rely on him for everything.

When Jessamine's thoughts were interrupted by the creaking of her bedroom door opening, she sat up straight, expecting her Appa. Instead, a dog padded into the room. It was a large, fluffy German Shepherd with brown and black fur, and wide marble-like dark eyes. What caught Jessamine's attention the most was that the dog was missing its front left leg.

As she stared at the dog, wondering if she was dreaming, her mother entered the room behind the animal. "Omma?" Jessamine looked up, sure that her bewilderment was showing on her face. "What the hell is this?"

"It's a dog, sweetie, what does it look like?" Sun-Hi rolled her eyes and strolled over to the bed, perching herself on the edge. The dog walked over and nudged her knee. "It's your dog."

"I've never said that I wanted a dog." This wasn't true. When she was younger, she had begged her parents constantly for a dog or a cat, but they'd always said that they didn't have time for that kind of animal. Instead, on her eighth birthday she had been given a hamster whom she'd loved dearly until it died two years later. At age twelve, they'd deemed her responsible enough to have chickens as long as she did all the duties – she had to clean out their coop, make sure their fencing was secure so they were still free range but couldn't escape, she had to get up early to feed them and check for eggs. She still had chickens now, but they weren't exactly her dream pet.

"Your father and I have been talking about this the past few days and we managed to pull some strings with the local dog rescue facility. We thought you'd benefit from having a dog, and now that your father is going to be working from home a lot whilst he writes his novel, we have the time to care of it."

Still didn't give her a full explanation. "And you think I'd benefit from having a dog because…?"

"For one thing, she'll give you company out here seeing as you'll probably get sick of us adults eventually," her Omma replied with a lovely smile. "But also, we've heard that dogs can be very therapeutic for people recovering from traumas like you are. We can tell that you're suffering Jessamine, and we hate to see that.

"Having your leg amputated doesn't mean it's the end of your life. Look at her," she nodded at the dog, stroking her head softly. "She hasn't let it affect her quality of life. Now, even though it was our idea to get you a dog she is still your responsibility. We expect you to get out of bed to feed her, to take her into the garden when she needs the toilet, and to take her for walks."

Ah, so that explained it. They were hoping the dog would bring her out of the bedroom and make her happy again. There was just one thing. "How am I supposed to talk her for walks when I can't even walk myself?"

"Of course we've thought about that too. For now, I'll go with you. You'll be in your wheelchair, but some fresh air and going out in public will be good for you. Then when you get your prosthetic you won't need me there with you." She stood up and patted the bed. The dog jumped up, looked curiously at Jessamine, before going over to her. It laid down next to her, resting its head on her leg. "She's all yours and she doesn't have a name yet, so make sure it's a good one."

Her Omma left the room and Jessamine tentatively stroked the dog. Its fur was so soft she wanted to cuddle it like a teddy bear. The dog looked up at her without lifting its head and Jess got the strange sense that it loved her already.

She closed her eyes and reached out for the golden shine of the dog's mind. Jessamine didn't know how or why, but she knew that she had powers, powers she hadn't told a soul about. She could move things with her mind, as well as go into other peoples' or animals' minds and see their memories.

In her dog's memories, she could see a nasty brute of a man shouting at the dog and kicking it in the stomach. Then the dog sneaking out of the garden through a gap in the fence, wandering streets for days, before being hit by a car. She'd been in so much pain, but had calmed down when strangers had gathered around her and comforted her.

Jessamine left the dog's mind and met her eyes again, still stroking her. "It's you and me now, honey," she whispered. "I'll make sure you never want to run away from me, as long as you make sure I never feel like I want to run away either."

* * *

As soon as the Savant Net official left their home, the entire family burst into conversation at the same time. With so many people talking, it was hard for Yves to focus on any one person, but he got the gist of how they all felt pretty easily: they were shocked, to say the least.

The official had told them that someone working from the Net had sensed a high presence of Savant activity in Wrickenridge, activity that wasn't from the Benedict or Williamson families (the only knows savants in the town) and was unregistered with the Net. To not be registered was a disgrace in their community – only rogues didn't register, or in very rare cases people who didn't know what they were (this wasn't a disgrace exactly, but it made the Net nervous that there was someone untrained that may blab their existence to the world). The Benedicts had specifically been asked to keep their senses aware as they went about their day-to-day business in the hopes they would find the unregistered savant. The Net were pretty sure there was more than one here, but weren't sure exactly so it was down to the Benedicts to try and uncover the truth.

The family were all worried that there may be rogues living in the area, and Yves knew that his parents would now become much stricter on curfews, which didn't affect him as much as it did Zed. Yves himself wasn't worried about being hurt by rogues. No, this news unsettled him for the main reason that it meant he would have to acknowledge that he was a savant when in public.

The thing with Yves was that he just wanted to be normal. He hated being dragged into the family's business, hated tracking criminals and being in danger. He wanted a normal life like his friends had, one where his biggest worry wasn't an enemy but failing school exams. He knew he was lucky to have powers, but a lot of the time he found himself wishing that he didn't have them. He only ever used his powers, even telekinesis, whenever he really needed to.

This made him feel like the black sheep of the family, if he was being honest. The rest of them embraced being savants instead of trying to live in a world where they could pretend they weren't, even in the privacy of their own home.

"Look, I don't think we need to panic about this," Victor was saying, leaning against the fireplace. The others had eventually quieted down and Vick was taking charge as per usual. "Keep your eyes open for anything strange, around town or at work, or even at school. If you see anything, report to me instead of trying anything with the person. Basically, don't put yourself in any unnecessary danger."

"Victor's right," Saul added, looking gravely at his family. "We handle this together, not on our own. I want everyone to always have their phones with them in case of emergencies. Will, Xav, Yves, Zed – your curfew is now nine o'clock, even on weekends."

"That's not fair!" Zed interrupted him, scowling. "That's the time my friends start going out, never mind come home."

"Yeah, and me and Will are older so shouldn't we have a later curfew?" Xav protested, no doubt thinking about all the girls in nightclubs he would miss out on.

"You're under my roof and that's the time I want you home so I know that you are safe," Saul didn't waver under their scrutiny. "Any of you that break curfew will be in a lot of trouble. Understand?"

Yves understood, and it seemed that Will did if his silence was anything to go on, but Xav and Zed were still clearly not happy about having a tighter leash. Frankly, Yves couldn't care less if he had to be home for nine if it meant not worrying his parents. Besides, he was more often than not home by then anyway, seeing as he didn't go out clubbing or to house parties.

He'd do anything to have this over as soon as possible so he could go back to at least trying to have a normal life.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** The start of Uriel's story!


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Updates for this story and my other story, Dark Illusions, may become pretty irregular from now on. I won't promise you a chapter a week because I don't know if I'll be able to do that, but I promise that I will try to update as often as I can. This is because I'm moving into university halls on Saturday (the 19th), and will be starting classes soon after - I don't know how much free time I'll have to write while I'm at uni, but I'll try my hardest. I am not giving up on the stories and I don't want to leave you without a new chapter for too long. I will try to update at least one of my stories each week, but like I said, no promises.

Right, now that's out of the way, here's the chapter! I hope you like it, please let me know what you think.

* * *

 **29** **th** **March 2014**

Uriel walked into the busy café during his lunch break from work and peered over the heads of other customers to get a good look at the tables. Almost every table was taken, and at one right at the back sat Hazel Clarrison with a double pram beside her. She looked up and smiled when she saw him.

As Uriel approached the table, he spotted that she had a latte in front of her and a black coffee set across the table. "It's yours," she indicated towards the coffee as he sat down. "Just been served so it's still hot. Thanks for coming to meet me."

He gave her a curious look as he said, "of course I would. We're friends; why wouldn't I?"

Truth was, they both knew how strange it was for them to be hanging out together alone. Not so long ago it had been the two of them dating, madly in love, but now Hazel was engaged to his brother and they'd had the twins together. It was still a sore spot for Uriel and he wondered if he would ever get over her. Sure, he had a girlfriend now and things were going well with her, but he couldn't deny that he still had feelings for Hazel. Maybe he would always love her, maybe that was just something that wouldn't change. Regardless, the two of them hadn't really been alone together since the split, the thought of it just being far too awkward putting them both off.

"So," he continued, taking a gulp of his coffee and wincing as it burned his throat. "What's this about?"

"Well, I actually wanted to talk to you and Vivienne together. I would have thought you'd be spending your lunch break together, but it doesn't matter. How are things between you two going?" She asked in a kind tone.

Confused about why she'd be asking him, he answered. "We're good. Really good, actually. It's still early days so that obviously has something to do with it, and her boys are fine with me being around. We have different lunch breaks now, that's why she's not here. We don't even work together anymore – I'm back with the marine animals, and she's just been promoted to head keeper for the giraffes. Why do you ask?"

"To be honest, this is going to sound like I'm meddling in your relationship. I guess I am, but I swear it's just because I want you to be happy. Vivienne is such a lovely woman and she seems really good for you, and I'm glad that you've found that."

Despite everything, it still hurt him to hear that she wanted him to move on. Further proof that they would never get back together. "Meddling how?" He pushed her.

"You see, I remember Vivienne mentioning that your birthdays are really close together but that you can't see if you're soulfinders because there's something wrong with her mind when it comes to telepathy. And I just thought, you know, wouldn't it be perfect if you are soulfinders, that you could have that happy ending together?"

Uriel's body went stiff in his seat and he took large gulps of his coffee to give him time to think his answer through. This was just typical Hazel, fiery and determined and that lawyer-ness to her that made her try and make everything right in the world. A true romantic at heart, of course she would think he and Viv would be lucky enough to be soulfinders. It would be a miracle if they were, and Uriel wasn't even sure he wanted to know the answer.

As if sensing his hesitation, Hazel continued, talking quickly like she was worried he would stop her. "When I was working for the London branch of the Net, I met this old guy whose power was healing. Not like Xav's healing though, his was strictly for the mind and he was amazing, Uriel. I saw someone's mind get destroyed by a mind manipulator, kind of like Vick's power, and this guy managed to fix it when it should have been impossible.

"What I'm trying to say is that I think he'd be able to fix whatever's wrong with Vivienne. Wouldn't that be great? She'd be able to do telepathy, and you'd be able to find out if you were soulfinders or not… The catch is that this guy lost his wife, his soulfinder. She worked for the Net and was killed doing a job for them, so he blames the Net and refuses to have anything to do with savants from now on. He kind of just disappeared, even his children and grandchildren don't know where he went."

"Oh well that sounds promising," Uriel replied sarcastically, the bitterness out of character for him. "I'll just go looking all over the world for him, shall I?"

Hazel rolled her eyes, probably used to attitude like this because he was acting just like Victor. He reigned his emotions in just to stop himself from being like his younger brother. Hazel opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted when one of the twins let out of a soft cry and a pacifier flew out of the pram. She quickly picked it up, cleaned it and returned it to the baby, before focusing her attention back on Uriel. He kind of wished one of the twins would start bawling so that he didn't have Hazel's undivided attention anymore.

"You don't have to go all over the world looking for him," she said, head tilting to the side slightly. "I still have contacts in London and I managed to get one of them to track the guy down. He's called Frank Gibbs, and he's currently living somewhere in the countryside of Yorkshire." She pulled a slip of folded paper out of her jacket pocket and slid it towards Uriel on the table. "No phone number, but there's the address. I was thinking that you and Viv could go to talk to him, try and convince him to help-"

"Thanks, but I don't think that'll be happening any time soon." Still, he grabbed the paper and stuffed it into his own pocket. "Thanks for, you know, taking the time to do this for us, but we wouldn't even be able to go anyway. We can't have Owen and Cai miss school."

"I thought your parents could look after them. Or Trace and Georgie. Even Vick and I would offer, if the boys are willing to kip on the sofas during the night. Everyone would help so you could do this, Uriel."

"Look, I know that you're just trying to help but…" He sighed, thinking about what Vivienne would say if she were here. It wasn't Uriel's decision to make. This was Vivienne's mind, her life, and even if they didn't want to see if they were soulfinders, she at least deserved to be able to use telepathy like all savants could. It was her choice and he would have to respect that. "I'll talk to Vivienne about it." He made a show of looking at his watch: he still had half an hour left and the zoo was only ten minutes down the road, but he didn't like talking to Hazel about Vivienne. It just felt wrong. "I should start heading back, sorry."

"Wait, Uri. There's something else that I need to tell you as well."

"What is it?"

Hazel looked hesitant, like she was scared of how he would react to this topic too. She finally met his eyes again and sounded apologetic as she said, "we've decided to start organising the wedding for as soon as we can. We set a date: the first of May. We're sending the invitations out next week, but I wanted to tell you in person so it wasn't a nasty surprise or anything."

Uriel froze. He told himself that this wasn't a shock, he knew this day would come eventually. He told himself that he had Vivienne now, that she was something new and refreshing, and that his feelings for her were slowly starting to cancel out his feelings for Hazel. He did genuinely like Vivienne and enjoyed being with her, but… He had loved Hazel for years. She'd been his first love, the one girl that he'd never gotten over. But now she was getting married and he'd always dreamed that it would be to him, but it wasn't. She was marrying his _brother_ of all people.

"That's great," he forced himself to say with a smile on his face. "I'll put it into my calendar. Good luck organising everything, I'm sure it'll be a wonderful day. I'm happy for you… I um, really have to go now. Thanks for the address and the coffee, I'll see you soon."

"Yeah, I'll-"

He didn't wait for her to finish her sentence. He simply rose to his feet and walked straight out of the café without looking back, without even giving his niece and nephew a kiss goodbye, telling himself off for being rude but not having it in himself to care too much.

Hazel and Victor were really getting married; it was actually, finally, going to happen.

God, he was finding it hard to breathe and his chest felt tight.

He thought he was fine with them two being together now, that he was over that at least in spite of still loving Hazel, but nope. The two of them being together still hurt so goddamn much.

* * *

 **5** **th** **April 2013**

Fists clenching and unclenching, mouth dry, left leg shaking, eyes darting around the room, and his skin sweating – all signs that Yves Benedict was quite clearly nervous. Scared, even. Why wouldn't he be? He'd been pulled out of class and called to the headteacher's office, something that in all his years of school had _never_ happened to him. His brothers, oh yeah sure, but definitely not him. He couldn't think of anything that he'd done wrong, what was he in trouble for? He prayed that it was nothing serious that would go on his permanent record. That would definitely not be good.

When the school's headteacher finally came into his office, he was whistling a jaunty tune to himself. He sat down across from Yves and gave him a big smile, showing off his perfectly white teeth. Mr. Maude was a man all the students hated: he was vain, conceited, and tried far too hard to be their friend rather than an authority figure.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Benedict," he said in a cheery voice. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble." Yves relaxed only slightly. "Actually, I've asked you here for a reason that's quite like a compliment to you."

Yves frowned. "I don't understand, sir."

"As you no doubt remember, the school had a tragic accident in January. One of the students that were injured, Jessamine Maxwell, then left school so that she could recover and get the specialist help that she needed. Jessamine and her parents are due to return to Wrickenridge this weekend, and consequently she will return to school on Monday. Now despite what the school board think, Jessamine would like to return to all her AP classes and we would like to give her the chance. She's a very bright girl and we feel partly responsible for her taking such an extended period of time off school."

Yves raised his eyebrows, surprised. Of course he still remembered the bus crash, it was hard not to, but it wasn't something that people really talked about anymore. For about a month it was the talk of the town, but by now there was new gossip going around and the students that had been in the crash mostly acted as if it had never happened. After that first month, people had also stopped talking about Jessamine – she'd become a mystery, not even her friends knowing what had happened to her, and honestly Yves didn't think anyone had been expecting her to come back to school.

"What does this have to do with me, sir?" He prompted.

Mr. Maude explained, still smiling. "If Jessamine is going to stay in her AP classes and pass the end-of-year exams, she's going to need help catching up on the work that she's missed. I believe you were in all the same AP classes as her, yes? The school thinks that you are a model student, Yves, and that you would be the perfect person to help Jessamine out. You can say no of course, but we will include this tutoring as extra credit on your permanent record, which will be good for applying to colleges."

Yves wondered why the school couldn't just hire a tutor, or have one of the teachers help Jessamine. It seemed that by asking him it was pure laziness on their part, but he couldn't deny that the extra credit was tempting. Add that to the fact that he had a tendency to help people whenever they needed it and he still felt sorry for Jessamine over what had happened, and he couldn't say no.

When Mr. Maude told him that the tutoring would have to be done in their spare time so they didn't miss any classes, Yves wasn't bothered. He hoped that Jessamine wouldn't complain about that either.

Then he thought about Monday, what it would be like for Jessamine. Everybody would have pretty extreme reactions to their old Queen Bee coming back to school after disappearing for months, and he predicted there would be stares and whispers everywhere she went.

He didn't think he'd have been able to handle that, so God knows how she would handle it.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Jessamine returns to school.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: Sorry the update took so long, I've been busy with uni but I think I'm finally getting into the swing of updating at least once a week!

So, I'm not that fond of this chapter. Honestly, I feel it's a bit boring but I hope you think differently.

If you'd like to know when a chapter will be posted, check my profile regularly. I'm going to write updates about when I've started a new chapter. You can always expect that chapter to be posted within a few days.

Please remember to leave reviews.

* * *

 **8th April 2013**

Word had gotten round town fairly fast about the Maxwell family's return to Wrickenridge. This was evident in the way that more students than usual were lingering by their cars in the school's parking lot, looking over every time a new car pulled up into the drop-off zone. Each time somebody got out of the car, they gave disappointed looks and turned away again.

Yves was stood near the school's main entrance, leaning against the wall as he waited for Travis to arrive. It wasn't uncommon for Travis to be late in the mornings seeing as he had to take his younger siblings to their school on the other side of town, and today Yves was kind of glad about this as he, like the other students hanging around here, was curious to see Jessamine again. Would she look or act any differently? Or would she be exactly the same?

Yves caught sight of a black motorcycle pull up near his brother's, and a moment later Parker Zimmerman climbed off the vehicle, taking his helmet off as he did so. His face didn't betray any of his emotions about Jess being back, which shouldn't have been surprising really – he was probably the only person in the school that hadn't talked about her in the months that she had been gone. Yves wondered if Parker had been in touch with her, or if he just didn't care about her anymore to make an effort. Either way, he clearly didn't care today, as he walked straight into the school without even looking around him to see if she had arrived yet.

"I really don't understand why everyone is so bothered about seeing her again," the voice came from Yves' left. He turned to see two of the cheerleaders, and Jessamine's friends, stood there. Katie Johansen, a short blonde-haired girl, had been the one to speak. "She's such old news. I mean, I'd be bothered if she'd took the time to answer my phone calls. Seriously, how rude can she be? Like, I get that she went through a tough time but I tried to be there for her and she wouldn't let me."

"She wouldn't let any of us be there for her," the other girl replied. Savannah Lee was a dark-skinned girl in the year below Yves, and was tall and muscular. "Maybe it was too hard for her, having to deal with all that. Maybe she only wanted her family around her."

Katie scoffed and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Well, whatever. I hope she doesn't expect to come back and have everything be the same again. I'm head cheerleader now, and I worked hard to get here and I'm not going to let her take that away from me."

Yves turned away from the girls and rolled his eyes. Katie was just a typical petty girl, a cliché that wanted to keep the 'most popular' title she had gained in Jessamine's absence. When she started to go on about a new shade of lipstick she was trying out, Yves started to tune her voice out. Until she abruptly stopped. Confused, Yves looked back at Katie and Savannah, only to find them both stood silently, concentrating on the drop-off zone.

Yves looked over too then, and recognised Jessamine's dad's Mercedes. The windows were tinted so he couldn't see inside the car, but it was only a couple of seconds until the passenger side door opened and Jessamine stepped out. For some reason, he'd expected her to look glum and to have shied away from the attention she was currently getting. He thought she'd be wearing dark clothes so as to not draw attention to herself, just like he would have if their roles were reversed.

But that wasn't the case at all.

She was wearing a mid-thigh length bright red sundress decorated by blue and white flowers, with a thin black jacket and long leather boots that went so far up her leg they disappeared under the dress. It was strange seeing her at school out of her cheerleading outfit, Yves briefly thought to himself. Her short hair was perfectly straight and she was wearing oversized black sunglasses as well as bright red lipstick.

Jessamine slid her handbag onto her elbow, said something to her dad, and slammed the car door shut behind her. Then, she started to walk through the parking lot. It was as if she couldn't even see all the people watching her, couldn't see them trying to figure out which leg was the prosthetic one. She walked with her head held high, facing forward the whole time. The way she was walking reminded Yves of some kind of warrior which was fitting considering how brave she was being by not cowering under everybody's gazes.

She stopped when she reached the entrance, moving towards her friends. They were close enough that Yves found himself eavesdropping, an action that he hated doing yet had found himself doing quite often in recent months.

"Hey, Katie. Savannah," Jessamine greeted the other girls in a friendly tone. "It's nice to see you both again."

"Hey, Jess," Savannah replied slowly, as if cautious about how to speak to her old friend and confused about how normal Jessamine seemed. Yves thought this was a pretty good reaction to have, to be honest.

Katie however, chose to go for a totally different, not subtle at all, tactic. "Oh yeah, you too. Everyone's missed you. The team is fine though, don't worry. I'm head cheerleader now, so you know, I'm taking care of everything and Coach Rees says I'm a brilliant role model for the younger girls."

Jessamine smiled, a reaction Yves hadn't been expecting. Jess had been head cheerleader for years now, absolutely the best dancer the team had – not that Yves really watched them all that much – so surely she'd be annoyed that they had already replaced her and her replacement was clearly bragging about it? Apparently, no. She wasn't annoyed by this.

"Good for you," she said, sounding genuinely pleased and not at all sarcastic in any way. "You always did try hard and you definitely improved the most; you deserve it." Katie frowned, but Jessamine continued as if she couldn't see that. "Hey, do you still have English first period? I'm still in AP, but we can walk over that way together, if you'd like."

As the three girls headed inside together, three things were on Yves' mind:

Firstly, Jessamine Maxwell was behaving as if she hadn't been in a traumatic accident that had left her disabled. She was picking right up where she left off, friends with the cheerleaders and having almost everyone's undivided attention. Either she had had a great recovery in Cleveland, or she was faking it all, unwilling to let others see her weaknesses. Regardless of whether it was the former or latter, Yves thought she must be pretty damn strong – just like she had been when they'd been best friends as kids – to have the guts to return to the school where everyone knew her business.

Secondly, Travis still hadn't turned up and Yves wasn't going to wait any longer. He wouldn't be late to class just because his friend wasn't here yet, especially seeing as it was AP English and they were on Shakespeare now, a topic he thoroughly enjoyed.

Which led to the third thought in his mind: Jessamine was in the same class as him first period and he needed to talk to her about arranging a tutoring session. That is, if he could get past the groups of students that would no doubt be all over her to get back into her good books.

* * *

She wouldn't let them think she was weak. She could tell what they were all thinking just from their expressions: they were feeling sorry for her, treating her like an animal in a zoo that needed to be observed. Her boots hid her prosthetic and all the scarring, the main reason she had bought them, yet people were still staring.

When she stumbled on her way into the classroom, she rejected the helping hands and righted herself, then walked straight to her usual table without even looking at anyone. She'd decided that she would be damned if she let them see any weakness in her – she wasn't weak. She wasn't moping around about the accident anymore.

It'd been a slow recovery, but she had done it. She'd gone from being in a wheelchair, to being on crutches, to having her prosthetic. She'd been through all the therapy sessions and physio sessions. She may have been permanently injured in the accident, but she was still alive. She'd been lucky and she wasn't going to waste this chance of living that she had been given. Her Omma praised her for this optimism, but Jessamine didn't see it as that; she just saw it as being strong.

Of course, she still had bad times where she cursed her leg and couldn't stop thinking about everything she couldn't do anymore, but those times always passed eventually. It was the best she had, so she might as well take it.

Sat in AP English, she annotated her copy of the book they were reading with her own thoughts and notes from the teacher's words. She'd tried to keep up with some of her work whilst she was gone, but she knew that she would be struggling in her classes until she was caught up. She was determined though, and knew that without being able to do her curricular activities anymore, she needed to make sure her grades were perfect so she could get into a good college.

Katie was sat next to her, dressed in the red and white cheerleading uniform. Jess didn't miss the uniform, but she missed being on the team. She missed the dancing, the gymnastics, the teamwork, and her girls. She couldn't believe Katie had been made the new head cheerleader: she wasn't that focused and didn't take criticism well, was terrible at choreography, and wasn't nurturing to the younger girls at all. Jess should have still been on the team and she resented that she could no longer be.

"So," Katie whispered in a casual tone, leaning closer to Jessamine. "Have you seen Parker since you got back?"

"No," she replied, putting her pen down. "K, I told you. We split up days before the crash, I was done with him. That hasn't changed."

"Huh," was Katie's only response.

When she elaborated no further, Jessamine gave up and turned back to her book. Clearly, things between her and Katie hadn't changed and most likely wouldn't in the near future. It'd always been more of a fake friendship than real with them, with Katie seeing everything as a competition and Jess enjoying putting her in her place. She was tired of it already today; God knows how she'd put up with it for years.

When the class finally finished, Jessamine was stood putting her things away when she heard someone say her name. Looking up, she saw that Yves Benedict was stood in front of her table, smiling down at her.

It'd been so long since she'd talked to Yves, yet he still felt familiar to her instead of it feeling weird. He'd grown to be quite handsome, she thought to herself. A small spattering of freckles adorned his nose and his big, dark eyes were the captivating kind. His prominent cheekbones and jawline were a family trait. She cleared her throat and gave him a smile. "Yeah?"

"I'm not sure if Mr. Maude told you, but he suggested that I tutor you to help you catch up in all your lessons." He used his index finger to push his narrow-rimmed glasses further up his nose. "I'd be willing to, if it's okay with you."

Jess raised her eyebrows. On the phone, Mr. Maude had said he'd set something like this up, but she hadn't expected it be another student, least of all Yves. But of course Yves would say yes. He always had been utterly polite and an all-round nice guy.

Knowing she needed the help, she nodded her head. "Yes, thanks. I'd really appreciate that."

"Okay. Well, we have to do it in our own time, so whenever you want to meet up is fine with me."

"Could you do today maybe? At my place around six?" She suggested.

Yves confirmed this, swaying on his feet a little before giving a final nod and walking away tensely. A small smile graced Jess' face. He'd looked so awkward at the end there, and for some reason she found it endearing. It reminded her of the cute, shy little boy she had befriended all those years ago. Some people just didn't change, and sometimes that was good.

She grabbed her bag and left the classroom, unsurprised to find that Katie hadn't waited for her. There was, however, somebody else waiting there for her.

"Thanks for letting me know you were coming back," Parker said in a flat tone, arms folded across his chest. "It was so thoughtful of you."

Sarcasm, obviously. She hadn't contacted him at all in the past months, had blocked him and everyone else out entirely. She sighed, knowing she had no doubt hurt him – she hated herself for that, but she knew it was the right thing to do. They couldn't get back together; not this time. "I'm going to be late for class," she finally said. "Is there something you wanted?"

"Yes, actually." He uncrossed his arms and moved towards her, stopping right in front of her. He put his hands on her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes. "I want you to man the fuck up and let me in again. You're forgetting that I know you better than you even know yourself, so I know that you pushed me away because you were scared. I know you lied in the hospital that day and you do still love me." He took in a deep breath and shook his head, speaking softer this time. "I miss you, Jessamine. And… I need you right now. My family's going to shit right now and Amy-"

"Parker," she interrupted him, pushing at his chest until he let go and took a step back. "I'm sorry, but I told you that I can't do this anymore. I have to focus on school now, I missed so much work. I can't get dragged into your family problems again."

It was a low blow and she knew it. Parker lived in a three-bedroom house with his mother and three younger sisters: Tegan, Amy, and Carmen. It was a struggle for them, and a lot of responsibility was on Parker to help out which had always messed with his mind and been stressful for him. He'd always come to her when things were tough, but she couldn't let him rely on her anymore.

She was done with him, just like she kept on telling everyone around her. She couldn't let him back in, couldn't let anyone get that close again.

Parker was looking at her like she were a stranger and it was causing a feeling of tightness in her chest. "Fuck you, then," he snapped, cheeks red with anger. "Fuck you, you selfish bitch. I know you went through something horrible, but fucking hell, Jessamine. You're not the only one with problems, you know. I swear to God, I'm starting to fucking hate you. Bitch."

He stormed away, slamming a fist into a random locker as he went. When he finally turned the corner out of sight, Jessamine let out a shaky breath.

Parker was right. She was selfish. And a bitch. But she still couldn't help thinking that having him think that of her was so much better than having him get close only for their hearts to be broken again. And if he ever saw her naked again… He'd be disgusted by the scars, she just knew it. She wasn't prepared to put herself through that.

She started walking to her next class and by the time she walked into the room – late, but the teacher didn't say anything about it – she'd wiped all emotions from her face and was smiling.

She wouldn't let them think she was weak.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Uriel tells Vivienne about Hazel's information; Yves and Jessamine have their first tutoring session.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's note:

Thank you for the reviews, I love reading them! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint. Thank you for being patient, I feel terrible for not updating that often anymore.

* * *

 **31** **st** **March 2014**

Vivienne waltzed into the kitchen and straight away poured herself a glass of red wine. She took a slow sip, feeling her muscles relax almost instantly. It'd been a tiring day at her job like it always was, which was then followed with Cai and Owen both making it a difficult night to put them to bed.

As Uriel joined her in the kitchen and poured himself a glass too, she smiled. He hadn't moved in just yet although they had discussed it, but he was over here a lot of the time and didn't seem to mind helping with the boys' bedtime routine. Her ex, the boys' father, had never really helped out that much, so it was refreshing being with Uriel and not having to do everything herself anymore.

He felt like family.

Uriel leaned against the counter facing Vivienne, a look on his face that she knew meant something was troubling him: eyebrows furrowed together, lips pursed, nose slightly scrunched up. When he met her gaze, he gave a small, faked smile. Vivienne raised her eyebrows to say, _you're not fooling me. Talk._

Uriel sighed. "You know how I met Hazel for dinner the other day and she told me about the wedding?"

"Yes." Her answer was short and clipped and her body tensed all over again. She always encouraged him to keep his friendship with Hazel, but at the end of the day she knew that Hazel was the one woman that Uriel would never get over. He still loved her; he always would. And even though Vivienne knew there was no chance of the two of them getting together again, she always worried when she knew they'd spent time together. She trusted Uriel, she did, but… Him spending time with Hazel just made her feel insecure in their relationship.

She hated that.

"Well, I kept something from you. She didn't just tell me about the wedding."

"Is that so? I'm guessing you're about to tell me what else she said?"

Uriel nodded once. He was looking down at the wine glass in his hand, staring intently into it as if it held the secrets of the universe. He wouldn't look at her as he spoke. "She likes me being with you," he finally said in a quiet, calm tone. "So she told me about this guy who works for the net. Well, he used to. He lives in England and he can heal people's minds, people with even the worst mind issues. He can even undo strong manipulation. Hazel thinks that he might be able to fix whatever's wrong with your mind, so you can use telepathy… So we can see if we're soulfinders."

Vivienne was silent for a moment as she took in what he'd said. He'd known this for days and was only now telling her? Why had he waited so long? Studying his nervous energy, she shook her head and answered him. "No."

His head shot up to look at her and she could have sworn that there was a relieved look in his eyes. "No?! But you'd be able to use telepathy then! You could talk to the boys that way, and it'd be helpful if you were ever in danger and needed to tell someone-"

"That's all well and good, Uriel, but the main reason savants have telepathy is so we can find our soulfinder. And I don't want that," she shrugged, turning her back on him and facing the sink. She poured her wine down the drain, no longer in the mood for a nice drink anymore. She felt miserable that this was the subject they were talking about – maybe their good times had been a lie and they were finally going to start having issues like normal couples did.

"What? Why wouldn't you want to find that out though? I know we've talked about it before and said that we don't need to know, but now that we actually have the chance to… Aren't you even a little bit curious?"

 _Of course_ she was curious. She desperately wished that they were soulfinders, it would make their relationship even better, and it would make her even happier. But…

"Viv-"

She exploded. Spinning around to face him again, she glared at Uriel with a stony expression on her face. "You want to know why I won't let us find out?! Because I know that if we're not soulfinders, you'll use that as an excuse to leave me!"

Uriel's jaw dropped open and Vivienne felt a small bout of satisfaction that she had hurt and shocked him. She was finally being honest with him and it felt so good. "I don't understand. Why would you think that?"

Vivienne took a deep breath to stop herself from shouting again, not wanting to wake the boys up. "I started to fall in love with you the day that we met and I knew it was a bad idea right from the start. You were still hung up on Hazel, you barely even noticed my feelings for you, and I knew that the chances of us getting together were slim.

"But you know the old saying. 'You can't help who you fall in love with.'

"I would love for us to be soulfinders, but I'm not sure that you feel the same way, Uri. You know what the thing with you is? You like being miserable. You like torturing yourself. You never let yourself get over Hazel because deep down you liked being heartbroken and how it excused you for so much of your shit attitude.

"You're trying with me, I know that, and I've been telling myself that that's enough. But one of these days I'm going to want more and you're not going to be in a place to give me that. I want to get married and I want more children, and I don't want to wait years for you to be ready for that.

"I'm not an idiot. You still love Hazel and in your mind no girl will ever measure up to her."

"You're wrong-"

"No I'm not," she quickly interrupted him. "If we found out we were soulfinders, you'd regret it because then you'd actually have a reason to stop wanting her. And if we found out that we weren't, you'd leave me eventually so then you can suffer and play the 'I'll never find my soulmate' card and you'll have everyone's sympathy, and they'll all understand why you still can't get over her. That's just the way it is. That's why I'd rather not know – I don't want to lose you."

"That's not how it is," Uriel pleaded, fingers tugging at his hair. He looked a mess and she knew that no doubt she did too. "If we're soulfinders, I'll be so happy. I'm not going anywhere, Viv, no matter what. Haven't we always said that it doesn't matter if we are or not?"

"Just let me ask you one thing, Uriel. Do you love me?"

Silence. He looked at her. She looked at him. He still didn't say anything when tears spilled from her eyes and ran down her cheeks. He didn't say anything when her bottom lip trembled and she took a choked breath.

She couldn't take the silence any longer.

"I am so in love with you. But you love her. I thought I could pretend, I thought that we'd be okay still but… it's too hard, Uriel. I deserve better than this. I think you should leave."

"Are you breaking up with me?" He asked softly, lovely eyes wide.

"I think I am, yes." God, it hurt so much to admit that. "We tried, Uriel."

"We're good together, Viv! What we have, my relationship with the boys, I can't lose that. Please don't do this."

"I don't want to, but it's too hard! I can't stand to know that you're not in love with me, that I'll never be good enough for you compared to her. I'm so happy when I'm with you, but I know we don't have a future together. As long as you're still into her, we just don't. I never asked you to block her out of your life – you can't, she's family – and I won't ask you to choose between us. But you can't have both of us whilst you're in love with her. I'm sorry. Please. Just leave. We're done."

She turned her back on him again, leaning her head forward so her hair covered her face. This was destroying her but she knew it was the right thing to do; she couldn't be second best for him anymore. She wanted more from him.

It was quiet for a long minute or so.

Vivienne didn't realise that Uriel had left until she heard the front door click closed behind him. It was then that she really let herself break down into loud, ugly sobs.

* * *

 **8** **th** **April 2013**

Yves drove past Jessamine's house every morning on the way to school, but he hadn't been inside of it for quite a few years now. When they were children, their group of friends always went to Jess' house more than anyone else's – it was always the biggest, meaning there was more room for them to play.

The Maxwell's were very wealthy, and their house proved that. It was more of a mansion than a house really, with its four floors and wide building. It was painted a pristine white, the garden absolutely perfect with a tall fountain and flowers in neat rows surrounding a lawn.

Yves climbed the three steps up to the porch and rang the doorbell, hearing it tinkle a sweet melody. The sound of a dog barking answered a few moments before the door swung open, revealing Jessamine. She was wearing the same clothes she'd worn at school a few hours earlier and gave Yves a tight, forced smile.

"Hi. Thanks for coming. Come in."

Yves entered the house, looking around as Jess closed the front door behind him. Like the outside, the inside of the house hadn't changed much either, other than looking a bit more modern. The front door led into a lobby area as if they were in a hotel, with doors on both sides and a huge marble staircase in the centre, leading to a landing. The décor was mainly black and white and grey, with splashes of red thrown in here and there.

His attention to the lobby was interrupted by a mess of brown and black fur charging at him. Yves stumbled back a little, bewildered as the dog began to nudge his leg. He reached a hand down and started to run a hand through its thick, soft fur. "I didn't know you had a dog," he looked up at Jess, a smile playing at his lips. "You know, dogs normally don't like me for some reason." Honestly, he felt a little proud that this one obviously did.

"We got her in Cleveland," Jess answered, shrugging her shoulders. "And don't feel too special, she loves everybody. Miso, down!"

The dog listened, stepping back from Yves and sitting so that she was facing the two of them. It was then that Yves realised she was missing a leg – was that a coincidence or was that the reason the Maxwell's had adopted her? Whatever the reason, Yves couldn't decide whether he thought it was sad or sweet that the dog and Jess had that in common.

"Miso?" He prompted.

"It's Korean. It translates to 'smile'. It seemed fitting, you know." Yves didn't know how that made sense. Jess nodded towards the stairs. "Come on, we'll work in my room. The cleaners are normally downstairs at this time and I'd rather not have any distractions from the work."

Yves followed her up the stairs, but his legs seemed to already know where they were going. Apparently, he remembered the way to Jess' room still. Miso followed behind them, tail wagging happily. She seemed to have no problems with the stairs, however Jess was going quite slowly and holding onto the banister tightly.

"Do you uh… Do you need any help?" Yves asked cautiously. "Not that I think you're incapable or anything, you just look like you're struggling."

Jess shook her head and took a deep breath before giving him a smile over her shoulder. Her eyes softened when she gave people genuine smiles, and Yves thought it made her all the more beautiful. "I'm okay," she replied gently. "But thanks. My leg just starts aching a bit at the end of the day if I've been on my feet a lot, especially when it comes to stairs, but I'll get used to it once I'm back in the routine of being at school every day. I'm still building up my strength, but I'm getting there."

Yves returned her smile but didn't answer. He couldn't help thinking about how brave she was being in all of this, but he didn't want to say that to her in case she thought he was belittling or patronizing her.

When they finally got to Jess' room, Yves was surprised by how surprised he was that the room had changed. For some reason, he thought it'd still have the bright pink walls and the stuffed animals lined up neatly against the wall. Now however, the walls were white, and instead of a carpet there was laminate flooring down. The curtains were pulled back, showing off the window seat and the large bay windows that let in the dying evening light.

There was a king size bed with a light blue duvet, a white desk and vanity table, and white bookcases. A large flat-screen TV was hung on the wall facing the bed, and there were two doors – Yves remembered that one led into a closet, the other an en-suite bathroom.

He felt drawn towards the wall to the left of Jessamine's bed, which was decorated with hundreds of photographs. There were ones of her and her family – both in America and Korea – loads of Jess and her cheerleading friends, a large majority of photos of her and Parker, and, right in the middle, one that Yves had not expected to see there at all. It was their old group when they were about ten years old, the last year that they were friends. The five of them – Yves, Jess, Parker, Travis, and Lauren – were sat at a table together, all grinning and wearing bright pink pointed hats to celebrate Jess' birthday.

"Woah," he breathed out. "I haven't seen that photo in years. How come you still have it?"

Jess took a moment to answer. "Memories, I guess," she finally said. "It was shortly after that that we went to middle school and grew apart. Anyway, let's get this work over and done with. I hate being behind in class."

"Me too," he grinned. "That's why I hate having time off, even when I'm ill or there's something going on in the family. Where are we sitting?"

In the end, they ended up sat on the bed as there was only one desk chair and despite his insistence, Jess refused to let him stand or kneel the whole time. Besides, there was a lot of work to start off with and the bed gave them plenty of room to spread out the note sheets Yves had brought with him.

They worked for two and a half hours straight and Yves was happy to see how dedicated Jess was to learning all that she'd missed. He had tutored others before and they'd never put in 100% effort, whereas that was exactly what Jess was doing. There was no small talk; just work. The whole time, Miso was curled up on the bed cushions fast asleep.

Yves thought he'd feel awkward this evening, in a hot, popular girl's room with nothing to say to her, but he'd found that he was actually rather comfortable in Jess' company. He never had to simplify anything for her, she was a great student, and she was just easy to be around. She'd been this way when they were younger too, but this whole time he thought she'd changed, thought that her priorities had changed so that she cared more about being popular than doing well in class.

He'd never been so relieved to be wrong about something.

When it finally got to half past eight, Yves stretched his back and cracked his neck, sore from sitting in the same position for so long. "I should get going, I have a nine o'clock curfew. Let me know when you want to do this again though. We could even meet and do new homework that we get so you can stay up to date with that too, if you want."

"That'd be absolutely amazing," she laughed, helping him gather all the papers up into one pile to put into his bag. You're saving me right now, honestly. I may actually finish school on time this year which I'd honestly lost all hope of ever doing."

"It's no problem," Yves said honestly as they stood up. "What are friends for?"

"I didn't think we were still friends to tell you the truth. But I seem to be running quite low on friends these days, so I'm not going to argue." The light tone to her voice showed him that she wasn't bitter about this and was just joking around. Miso lifted her head from the cushion and let out a little whine, causing Jess to roll her eyes. "Yes, I know," she said to the dog. "Your evening walk is later than normally, but I'm not cancelling on you. Have patience."

Yves couldn't help but chuckle at this, at the fact that Jess talked to the dog as if she were a person. Even stranger, Miso simply put her head back on the cushion and went quiet as if she knew what Jess had said. Yves didn't understand animals – he'd never had a pet and had never wanted one. They weren't really his forte.

As Jess saw him out at the front door and thanked him yet again, a phone rang from somewhere inside the house. "I should get that," she pulled a face that said she didn't want to get that. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

Yves said goodbye and walked to his car, a beaming smile etched onto his face.

It felt really, really good to be reunited properly with an old friend. He hoped they didn't let their newfound friendship get away from them again; he'd missed her. He doubted that they'd ever be best friends again, but to at least be able to talk and help each other out was far better than acting like the other one didn't even exist.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** I don't actually have a hint this time, sorry!


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note:

I haven't been getting many reviews lately, and I know that's probably because I'm taking so long to update which I'm sorry for. I've been so busy with uni, but I'm going to try organising my time better so I can update more, promise. So please remember to review and let me know what you think, reviews really do make me want to write a new chapter for you guys even more. Aaaaand I hate that I sound like I'm whining so I'll just let you read the chapter now, haha.

* * *

 **5** **th** **April 2014**

According to Google, the informal definition of 'zombie' was: _a person who is or appears lifeless, apathetic, or completely unresponsive to their surroundings._

Uriel Benedict felt like a zombie.

It had been five days since Vivienne broke up with him and he'd been a wreck since. He'd called in sick to work, ignored phone calls from his family, and had only left his apartment once to go and buy alcohol. He'd spent the days aimlessly moving around his home, lost in a drunken stupor. He watched shit reality TV on the sofa until he finally passed out in the early hours of the morning. He ordered takeaways and didn't clean anything up after himself. He hadn't showered, but what the fuck did that matter? Nobody was here to smell him anyway.

What was the point of anything anymore? Why shouldn't he stay here and be miserable? His girlfriend had broken up with him, surely this was a normal response to have?

 _Maybe,_ a voice whispered in the back of his mind. _It's a normal response when you love the girl._

And there it was: the problem that he couldn't stop thinking about.

He didn't love Vivienne. Why didn't he love her?

He respected her, of course, and he enjoyed being with her. Her being in his life had given him a purpose again and he was truly happy when he was with her, but it was like there was a brick wall encasing his heart to prevent him from giving it away again.

Was Vivienne right about him in what she said? Did he like being miserable and heartbroken? He sure didn't like how he felt right now, that was certain.

Why didn't he love her?

He'd never find anyone like her again. Never find someone as kind, gentle and patient as her. Never find someone that accepted his ex would always be a part of his life. She understood him completely and so easily allowed him into her sons' life and trusted him with them. There wasn't a bad bone in her body; she was just a genuinely lovely woman. They were a great couple and everyone said that they were perfect together.

So, why didn't he love her?

Maybe Viv was right. Maybe it all went back to Hazel – like it always seemed to. Maybe he wouldn't ever stop wanting her, deep down. Moving on wasn't as simple as people made it out to be, not when you'd loved the person for so long. He was so annoyed and angry at himself. He could never be with Hazel again, so why couldn't he just settle down with Vivienne, knowing that she would always love him?

But Vivienne had been right: he couldn't be with her when he was still in love with Hazel.

For so long now he'd told himself that his love for Hazel was okay. Told himself that he could still love another, that he'd always love Hazel but he could gladly move on, but it just wasn't true. When the hell was he going to stop loving a girl that had no feelings for him in that way anymore? A girl that was about to get married to his younger brother?

"Goddamn it," Uriel swore, falling back against the sofa and taking a big gulp of a newly opened beer.

Maybe his brain did want him to be miserable.

His phone buzzed on the coffee table and he leaned forward to pick it up. He hadn't been answering the thing since the breakup, but he still always checked it to see if it was Viv, hoping she'd say she'd made a mistake and wanted him back. It wasn't her, but he was still surprised by who was phoning.

He answered it. " _What_."

He heard a breath being let out. "I didn't think you'd answer. Everyone's really worried about you, they're ready to call the police. Where are you?"

"I'm at home," he said through gritted teeth. He was angry at her despite knowing it wasn't her fault. "What do you want, Hazel?"

"I phoned Vivienne," Hazel replied in a quiet voice, shocked by his anger probably. He couldn't bring himself to care whether or not he'd offended her. "She said you broke up. I don't understand, I thought things were going well with the two of you?"

His rage boiled to the tip of his tongue. "Of course you'd want that, wouldn't you? That way you wouldn't have to feel guilty about falling in love with my brother and breaking my heart."

"That's not fair." It sounded like her voice was breaking, as if she were close to tears. Good. Another person upset with the situation – why not try and get as many people sad as possible? It seemed like the only thing he was good at recently. "I just want you to be happy. I'm worried for you-"

"Well I'm fine," he snapped. "You don't need to worry, okay? Just leave me alone, you just make everything worse!" He hung up, throwing the phone across the room, not giving a fuck if it broke or not.

He felt bad for talking to Hazel that way, which he hated himself for. Why did he feel like calling her back and grovelling for forgiveness? Love was so messed up and he hated it.

He was sick and tired of being in love with Hazel. It was easier said than done, but he was going to make himself stop loving her. He didn't know how, but he was going to do it.

A plan of action formed in his head: he needed to persuade Vivienne to find this guy with him so they could get her mind fixed. Then, they could find out that they're soulfinders and everything would be perfect. He'd have his soulfinder, no reason to love Hazel anymore – Vivienne thought he'd regret finding out whether they were soulfinders because then he'd have a reason not to love Hazel.

But all he wanted was to stop loving her; it was just fucking him up.

Why didn't he love Vivienne?

If only he could stop loving Hazel, then he'd be able to love Vivienne. They'd be soulfinders and he'd love her and everything would be okay. He'd finally be able to move on and be happy.

He just had to figure out how to convince her to take the trip with him.

* * *

 **13** **th** **April 2013**

Her parents had told her that going to the party was a bad idea, but Jessamine insisted upon her Appa driving her there. Before the accident she'd always gone to the house parties that were thrown at weekends and she was determined to not let the accident ruin her life completely. She wanted a normal life again, and that included getting her old friends back even if she didn't like them all that much. She wanted to give off the appearance that she was still the same person so people would stop judging her, so it made sense for her to go the party that Saturday night.

The party was already in full swing when Jessamine arrived, her Appa driving away behind her. Music was blaring out of the open windows, the front door was wide open with people spilling out onto the lawn. Laughter and shouting could be heard over the music, and there was a keg set up in the front garden as well as red solo cups littering the grass.

Jessamine's father had winced at the sight of a party so out of control, but her parents trusted her so he had only told her to take care as she got out of the car.

Pushing her way through the crowd of people, Jessamine made her way into the house. It seemed like almost everyone from school was here, which was likely – in a small town like this one, there weren't many parties held for students.

She made her way through the hallway, looking around for any of her old friends that she could talk to. Nobody wanted to be the person stood on their own at a party, of course, and Jess had always been surrounded by people at these things.

The first one she saw was Katie, but seeing her made Jess stop still in the doorway of the living room. Katie was stood in front of the unlit fireplace talking to some of the girls on the team, wearing the shortest and tightest red dress Jess had ever seen. Next to her stood Parker, one arm around Katie's shoulders and the other holding a drink. He was smiling down at Katie, looking amused at whatever it was she had to say.

 _Oh,_ Jess thought. _So this is why Katie wanted to know if I was getting back with Parker. She wants him for herself._ It made sense considering how Katie had always wanted whatever Jessamine had. She'd been a copycat for years, but Jess hadn't pictured her being this disloyal. Wasn't it in the 'girl code' that you didn't date your friend's ex? It was just the decent thing to do.

One of the girls spotted Jess stood there and must have told the others as the group all looked over at her. Parker looked surprised to see her at first, before a cold expression came onto his face. He didn't let go of Katie, who was smirking at Jess like a cat who got the cream. Her smug face sickened Jess. The skank could have Parker for all she cared; at least Parker wasn't still hung up on her anymore which was what she wanted. Right?

Jess spun around and went into the kitchen, not wanting to see the two of them together. She kept repeating to herself that she had been the one to break up with Parker, he had every right to move on if he wanted to. She had no right to feel so jealous.

Jess used to be the life of the party, talking and dancing with everyone, having fun despite not drinking. If she and Parker were together, they'd be all over each other; if they weren't, they'd purposely make out with someone else just to piss each other off. Many of those nights ended with her and Parker sneaking to somewhere private – an upstairs bedroom, an empty bathroom, the backseat of her car – which had always led to intimate moments that made up some of the best times in their relationship. Those parties had always been so fun.

This one wasn't.

As she walked around the place, stopping to have conversations with people she knew, she had to force herself to smile and laugh. This had been such a bad idea, her parents had been right. Nobody wanted her here. It was blatantly obvious in the way every single person seemed so awkward around her and eager to make up an excuse to get away from her.

As it always did when she got really worked up or nervous about something, her power – why did she even call it a power? It was more like a curse – started making itself known without her controlling it. Brushing up against people, which was inevitable in a place as packed as this, led to her mind being swamped with memories of their lives: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

She needed to get out of here. She'd tried to enjoy herself, she really had, but maybe this was too big a step so quickly after coming back. She needed to ease her way into being popular again, to getting her old life back.

She left the back garden, crossed through the kitchen into the hallway, and felt tension leave her when she saw the front door. Finally able to escape, she started to move quickly, shoving people out of the way instead of being polite and saying 'excuse me'. She just needed to get out so she could phone her dad and tell him to come pick her up. She needed to go home.

But after just a few steps, something went wrong. Her prosthetic leg tripped over something on the floor – someone's foot, a bag, she didn't know – and she lost her balance. There was nothing to grab onto and she stumbled, losing her footing and slamming onto the ground. She thrust her arms out in front of her to catch her fall, hands stinging from the impact.

Sprawled there on the beige carpet, her first thought was to look at her leg. Due to the skinny jeans and tight boots, no one could see her prosthetic which she was glad for – heaven forbid they saw something they'd never seen before.

She looked up helplessly, only to see that those around her that had seen the fall were laughing. Whether it was because they were that drunk they'd laugh at anything, or that they were just nasty people, it didn't matter. They were still laughing.

Her face heated up and she struggled to keep her eyes wide open so that the tears she could feel wouldn't spill down her cheeks. With a shaky breath, she struggled to stand up again. Her left hip hurt from the fall and she felt like crying from the pain as well as the embarrassment, but forced herself not to. Nobody helped her.

When she was finally steady on two feet again, she lifted her head and saw that Parker and Katie were stood near the front door, Parker still with an arm around Katie's shoulders. Katie was looking straight at Jessamine, again looking smug and amused. Parker, however, was looking down at the drink in his hand as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

He didn't even look up as, wincing from the pain in her hip that she knew was going to leave a bruise, Jessamine walked past them with her head held high and left the house. She carried on walking without looking back, only stopping when she got to the end of the road and was definitely out of sight of the house.

Hand shaking, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She was about to call her Appa but hesitated – if he picked her up, he'd ask why she was leaving so early and she didn't want to have to explain to him what had happened and how ashamed she was. So instead, she scrolled down to the last contact in her phone and clicked on Yves Benedict's name.

Every evening this week he'd come to her house to help with school work and they'd become so comfortable around each other, talking about normal things like TV shows as well as doing the work. They were slowly getting to know each other and after just a short time, she already felt like she could call him a friend again and mean it.

After a few rings, the call was answered. "Hey, Jess. What's up?"

She took a deep breath to make sure that she didn't start crying as she replied. Nevertheless, her voice still shook with emotion. "Uh, I know it's late but is there any chance you could come pick me up from this party and take me home? I'd walk, but it's a half an hour walk and it's dark." She didn't mention that she knew she wouldn't be able to handle the walk. "You don't have to, I can ask my Appa instead. God, I should have just asked him. I'm sorry – it's Saturday night, I'm sure you're busy. Forget I asked."

"No, wait!" He said quickly before she hung up. "Where are you? I'll come, it's no problem."

Grateful, she gave him the address and hung up after he assured her he would be there soon.

Jessamine sat down on the curb of the sidewalk and gulped back a lump in her throat. She couldn't cry until she was in the privacy of her own home. Somebody could still see her and she didn't want them to see how much her peers laughing at her had hurt. She wouldn't let them see her weak. So there she sat, fighting back tears as she waited for Yves Benedict to rescue her.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Yves has an eventful night.


	8. Chapter 8

**13** **th** **April 2013**

The man lifted his sword high into the air and let out a war cry as he charged down the hill with his men, ready to obliterate the opposing army. After months of hard training, he was finally the kind of warrior he had dreamed of being – the kind of warrior his father had been. After this war, he would set out on a journey to avenge his father and would not return to his love unless it was in glory. His sword clanged against another that belonged to a huge ogre-

 _Ring, ring…_

With a groan of annoyance, Yves paused the war game he was playing with Travis online, sent his friend a quick message through the game saying he would be right back, and snatched his phone from his bedside table. He and Travis had been working to get to this level for weeks now and his excitement levels for tonight were high. According to their other friends and the online forum for the game, the hunt for the player's father's killer was the best part of the game and he was so close to it.

Looking down at the smartphone in his hand, his annoyance eased a little when he realised it was just Jessamine. "Hey, Jess. What's up?"

There was silence on the other end and just as he was about to ask if she was still there, she replied. "Uh, I know it's late but is there any chance you could come pick me up from this party and take me home? I'd walk, but it's a half an hour walk and it's dark. You don't have to, I can ask my Appa instead. God, I should have just asked him. I'm sorry – it's Saturday night, I'm sure you're busy. Forget I asked."

"No, wait!" He said quickly as it sounded like she was about to hang up. "Where are you? I'll come, it's no problem."

He wrote the address down on the back of his hand whilst she gave it to him, before hanging up. He sent another message to Travis, lying and saying his mom wanted him to clean up. He hated lying to his best friend, but he knew that Travis would just moan at him if he told him it was for Jessamine – Travis still didn't like her and had turned his nose up in disgust every time Yves had mentioned her this week.

He quickly pulled his shoes on and grabbed his car keys. It took him a few minutes to sneak out of the house without being noticed, knowing his parents wouldn't let him leave seeing as it was past the new curfew they had put in place. Yves had never broken curfew before and would normally be panicking, but he had a feeling that Jess really needed him.

As he drove over to the address she'd given him, he was worried about her. He'd said yes to picking her up not just because he was a nice guy but because he'd never heard Jess sound so shaken and unconfident before; it was highly unlike her. She sounded upset and not just that, but it sounded like she'd gone to the party he'd heard people talking about at school. Had she been drinking? Even if she hadn't, she was out alone in the dark which was definitely not a good thing.

He was that worried in fact that he went slightly over the speeding limit when he was on empty streets, another thing that he never did. Looked like he was breaking all the rules for Jess tonight.

When he finally turned his car onto the correct street, he spotted her sat on a curb. He parked a short distance away and got out, walking over to her as she gave him what looked to be a grateful smile. As he reached out a hand to her, she accepted his help as he pulled her to her feet.

Looking her up and down briefly, he noted that she physically seemed to be fine except for the fact that she was holding onto her hip as if it hurt. He met her eyes, realising they looked devastated. Almost as if she was crying, expect there were no tears. "What happened?" He asked gently, still holding her hand even though she was stood now.

Looking down, Jess shook her head. "I was stupid. I went to the party even though my parents told me not to. It was horrible. Nobody wanted me there and Parker was there with Katie and they looked like they were _together_ and hardly anyone spoke to me for long and then I fell over in front of everybody and I hurt my hip and everyone was laughing and Parker wouldn't even look at me because he hates me so much and it was so embarrassing I don't think I'll ever live it down." She let out a long breath after she was finished, having rushed her words. She'd been squeezing his hand tighter and tighter.

Yves carefully pulled his hand out of her grip, a frown on his face. He totally believed that the popular crowd had laughed at her falling her over and this made him mad. Yet he also felt that maybe Jess was over exaggerating a little – of course she would be able to live it down. She was Jessamine Maxwell, for crying out loud.

"They're idiots. I'm sorry," he said sincerely. He didn't quite know what else to say so he led her over to his car, holding the passenger door open for her before getting back behind the wheel. As he started the car, one thing was on his mind and he didn't hesitate in asking her. "Why did you even go to the party? Those people have been funny with you all week. I get that they used to be your friends, but can't you see that they're not genuine?"

Her reply was that quiet he barely heard her. "I don't want genuine friends. I want to be popular again."

Never one to back down when he wanted answers, Yves pressed her harder. "But why? I gotta tell you, it doesn't look like much fun and I'm a lot happier blending into the background."

"Because I need it! I _need_ to be popular otherwise I'll go insane," Jessamine said through gritted teeth as if the words pained her.

Stopping at a red light, Yves gave her a confused look. "That… Actually makes no sense at all. What on Earth are you on about?"

"Ugh," Jess groaned and slouched in her seat, rolling her eyes. "What is it with you? You never stop asking questions. I guess that's the scientist in you," she teased before going serious again. "Well, the truth is I want to be popular again because it'll be my normal life. The life that I'm used to.

"After the accident, there was a long time before I could walk again and I had to depend on my parents for everything. I was used to being independent in almost every way that losing control of my entire life was so hard for me. Not being in control, it makes me feel vulnerable and pathetic and I'm sick of feeling that way. If I become popular again then everyone will do what I want and I'll be in control again, and I need that, Yves. Maybe saying I'll go insane is a tad extreme, but it definitely won't make life any easier for me if I don't gain control of my life again. Does _that_ make sense?"

Yves slowly nodded, turning the corner onto Jessamine's street. "I suppose I can understand that." He wasn't lying either. He was fairly independent himself, and he knew that she had been too. Her parents worked a lot so she'd probably been in the house alone often for years, having no choice but to take care of herself. It must have been hard to lose that entirely.

Yves pulled up the car outside Jessamine's house and turned the engine off. An awkward energy filled the air between them. "Now I have to go in there," she started, "and tell my parents that after being at a party I begged them to let me go to, I decided to only stay for an hour at the most."

"Will they buy that?"

"No. But they're fairly relaxed, so they won't push me to tell them what happened if I don't want to. Which I don't." She gave him a smile, a soft one that made her look sweet. "Thank you for this, Yves. I'm glad I have a friend like you."

She unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned towards Yves, surprisingly planting a gentle kiss on his cheek. As she pulled away again, Yves felt his face taking on a rosy hue, an embarrassed smile gracing his face. He felt like such an idiot. Why couldn't he just grin and laugh it off like other guys would have?

 _Oh shit,_ he thought as the realisation came to him: he kind of had a crush on Jessamine. A silly, childish crush that was just going to end in him being hurt. Shit. Having a crush on Jessamine Maxwell was not a good idea.

He cleared his throat and quickly said, "Well, um, you're welcome. I don't mind giving you a lift."

She thanked him once more before getting out of the car. He waited until she got to the grand doorstep of her house, waved at him, and headed inside, before he started his car again.

Looking around to make sure it was safe to pull out onto the road again, he spotted a silver car parked parallel to him. There was a man inside, staring across at the Maxwell house with an unreadable expression on his face. His eyes slid over at that moment, catching sight of Yves staring at him, and his eyebrows turned down into a frown. The man was Korean from the looks of it, and Yves remembered Jess briefly mentioning during the week that her uncle was due to pay a visit, so guessing this was her uncle, he lifted a hand and waved.

If the man was Jess' uncle, Yves had no idea why he would just sit in his car outside instead of going inside the house and joining his family. Instead of waving back, the man's expression hardened as if he had a reason to hate Yves already. Finding that pretty weird, Yves looked away from the man and started his car, hoping for a quick drive home so he could go straight to sleep and not linger on any thoughts of a possible crush on Jessamine Maxwell.

By the time he did get home, the area around his home was quiet except for the distant chittering of birds in the woods beyond the house. He entered through the front door of the house as quietly as he could, hoping not to wake anyone up…

Only to find his parents stood in the doorway of the kitchen, staring straight at him and looking fairly pissed off, with Zed hovering behind them. "I can explain," he blurted out. "I know it is past my curfew but it was for a good reason, I swear."

"Yves," Saul said strictly. "There are unclassified savants in this town that may or may not be dangerous, and we don't want you getting harmed. There is no good reason for you to be out this late. I'm only glad that Zed told us he'd seen you leaving the house."

Yves narrowed his eyes at Zed.

 _"_ _That's what you get for telling them I'm failing maths,"_ Zed's voice came into his mind.

Sometimes, it really did suck having brothers.

Yves sighed and braced himself for whatever punishment his parents had decided on.

* * *

After lying to her parents about having enjoyed the party, Jess headed up to her bedroom and went straight into the shower. She felt almost like she was washing off the embarrassment of the night and all the bad feelings it had brought, and surprisingly to her, she actually did feel better and more relaxed afterwards.

Jess got out of the shower, gave her body a quick dry with a towel before wrapping a bathrobe around herself. She went and sat at her vanity table and started running a brush through her short hair, smiling when Miso came over and nudged her leg with a wet nose.

"Hey, honey," Jess crooned in a whisper. "How was your night? Mine wasn't so good, but I'm trying not to think about it. I'll deal with it Monday morning." It wasn't strange to her anymore, talking to her dog like she were a person.

Putting her brush down, Jess pulled up the hem of her bathrobe and leaned forward, spending a minute or so taking off her prosthetic leg. She could sleep with it on, but she was much more comfortable without it there. She reached to the side to lay it down on the floor beside her bed.

"Miso?" She stroked the top of the dog's head, the fur soft between her fingers. "I don't think anything is going to go back to normal unless I take extra steps. I can't just jump into the same role as I had before because I'm not the same person anymore. I need to think of some other way to be admired and popular again."

When she heard a light melody come from her phone, she stood, bracing a hand on the back of her chair to keep her balance. It took her two slow, short hops to get to her bed, with Miso stood close next to her as if in support. Finally, she got to the bed and crawled into the middle of it where she had thrown her phone when she entered her bedroom.

Expecting the new text to be from Yves – he was basically the only person who contacted her at the moment – she opened the text without hesitating. It was only after she clicked open that she realised the name above the text was Parker's. And even if that wasn't enough to let her know the text was from him, the bad grammar and slang was enough of an indication; Yves was the opposite, using full words and capital letters.

She read the text.

 **i hope ur ok. im sorry 4 not helpin u wen i shud have i feel so bad. plz reply so i no u got home safe**

Jessamine didn't reply. She didn't owe him that and besides, she didn't really know what to say to him. It just didn't feel right speaking to him again. She'd broke up with him and kept him at a distance for a reason and she couldn't back down now. As much as she wanted to. As much as she missed him.

She lay down on the bed, curling up into a foetal position. It was then that the tears she'd been wanting to cry all night finally ran down her cheeks and she let out soft sobbing noises.

Despite ignoring her tonight and being at the party with Katie, Parker's text showed that he still cared about her. Maybe he still hated her like he said he did, but then why would he bother asking if she was okay?

She'd always been annoyed and a little jealous whenever she saw Parker with another girl, but tonight her jealousy had been more than she could handle. All because she knew that they wouldn't get back together again. She was still in love with Parker, she couldn't deny that, and she wanted him back desperately.

That just wasn't going to happen though; she couldn't let it happen.

She let Miso jump up onto the bed and when the dog laid down beside her, Jess buried her face in the dog's fur and let her tears out.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** It's Monday morning, and after the events of the party Jessamine is nervous about facing her peers again.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's note:

Please remember to leave me a review with your thoughts on the chapter :)

Also, I haven't been reading any Finding Sky fanfics recently but I really want to. If you write one, or if you read one that you recommend, please tell me in a review so that I can check it out! :)

* * *

 **15** **th** **April 2013**

The other students had been staring at her all morning, and Jessamine hadn't acknowledged or spoken to a single one of them. She'd looked back at a few of them, mainly her old friends on the school's cheerleading team, but just to look them up and down before giving them an amused smirk. It was an intimidation tactic that made her seem superior to them, and if their faces had been anything to go by, it had worked.

At lunch, she left her classroom and walked straight down the centre of the hallway, the perfect way to get people's attention. She was wearing over-the-knee leather boots over dark blue jeans, with a lacy black top that definitely broke the school's dress code. She was yet to be brought up for it though. Her bright red lipstick matched the red bangles on both her wrists, as well as the red Givenchy bag on her arm. The whole outfit demanded attention.

Attention was what she was getting too. Like she had been doing all morning, she acted like she didn't even notice the kids lining the hallway. Head held high, she walked like she owned the school and couldn't care less about anyone in it.

She'd chosen to be like this today. If she presented herself as someone important and emotionless, no one would bring up Saturday night and no one would laugh at her. If she'd come to school cowering and trying to be invisible, she would have been a huge target for their ridicule. As it was, her planned attitude had worked: not one person brought up Saturday in her presence, and there was no snickering going on behind her.

It was like before the accident all over again, when she had been untouchable. She just had to have control of the cheerleaders again, the girls who 'ruled the school', and she would be the Queen Bee again.

She smiled to herself, knowing that she'd spent the whole of Sunday thinking through what to do and had come up with the perfect answer. She was on her way to see it through when she spotted Yves stood talking with Travis whilst Travis rifled through his locker.

Before the accident, she wouldn't have gone up to them in public – they weren't exactly popular, geeks really, and it would have looked so odd her talking to them. Now, she wasn't too bothered as most people knew that Yves was tutoring her so she had an excuse, but also because Yves was a good friend to her now and she wasn't ashamed of him. So what if people knew they were friends; they'd just have to deal with it.

"Hey," she greeted the guys as she stopped by them.

Their conversation stopped and she saw Travis narrow his eyes at her. He didn't reply to her, but Yves did. Smiling, Yves said, "Hi. I've been meaning to speak to you today, but I never had a chance in class. I'm grounded, so-"

"What?" Jessamine raised an eyebrow, her lips tugging into a smirk. "Yves Benedict got grounded? That just seems wrong. What did you do?" She laughed.

Yves rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter. The point is, that means I'm literally only allowed out of the house to go to school. My folks have let me keep my phone though, in case of an emergency, so I can still help you catch up on your work – it'll just be over the phone. Is that okay?"

"Sure," she agreed, nodding her head. "What-"

"Jess." A husky, male voice came from behind her, interrupting her.

Turning her body so she could look at both Yves and the interrupter, the smile fell from her face. Parker was stood there, mouth in a grim line. He looked angry, which annoyed her after his behaviour on Saturday. Despite the text he sent afterwards. Whatever. Jessamine scowled at him and almost growled, "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you." He looked at Yves and Travis then added, "Alone."

"Nothing you have to say is important to me," she spat. She hated being so cold towards him but it was so much easier than telling him she was still in love with him. "I thought I told you to leave me alone."

"Jess, for fuck's sake. Stop being so fucking stubborn and just hear me out," he returned, glaring at her. "You never give me a chance to explain, can you do it just this one time? Or are you worried listening to me for once is going to kill you?"

"What gives you the right to talk to me like that?" She argued, forgetting entirely that Yves and Travis were stood right there listening to every word. "You arrogant, son of a-"

Parker grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her to the opposite side of the hallway, swinging open the door to an empty classroom and shoving her in. He closed the door behind them and took a step closer to Jessamine, who put her hands on his chest and shoved him away from her.

"How dare you-"

"Listen to me!" He shouted at her, running a hand through his hair. "Jess, I'm… I'm so fucking sorry, okay? About the party, about what I said to you on your first day back, everything. I wasn't fair to you, I've just had so much going on at home and I took that out on you.

"Why didn't you reply to my text on Saturday? I only wanted to make sure you were okay."

"That was a bit too late, don't you think? I was humiliated and hurt, and you just stood there. With Katie, of all people!"

"Katie means nothing-"

"I didn't owe you a reply, Parker. Thank you for the apology though. Apology accepted. Now, are we finished here?" She folded her arms across her chest and gave him her best pissed-off look. Inside, she wasn't angry at him. Inside, she wanted to drop this whole act of hating him. But she couldn't let that show.

"I miss you, Jess," he told her, longing in his voice. He held his arm out as if reaching for her, but she took a step back to get further away from him. He dropped his arm.

"I don't care," she lied. "Besides, it seemed to me like you're with Katie now. Honestly, I think it's a good match – she's just like the old me that you were obsessed with. I hope you're happy together."

"Nothing has fucking happened between me and Katie!" He exclaimed, definitely far past simple frustration now. "Jess, you seem to be forgetting that I know you very, very well. I know you don't really want me to be with Katie and to leave you alone. I _know_ that you still love me no matter how much you deny it. I don't know why you're doing this to me, to us, but I just want you to know that I don't believe your bullshit."

"Parker, I-"

"Go ahead," he smiled viciously. "Tell me you hate me. Call me every name under the sun. I still. Won't. Believe. You."

Jess closed her eyes and took a deep breath. For a second, her façade slipped and she felt her bottom lip tremble. But she reigned her emotions in, mentally repeating to herself over and over why she couldn't be with him, and by the time she opened her eyes and looked at him again her face was blank. She didn't let him see any emotions, any weakness.

"I have to go," she told him in a calm, controlled voice. "I have a meeting with my old coach. Goodbye, Parker."

She stepped past him and opened the door of the classroom, leaving him in there. Yves and Travis were still stood opposite, Travis looking curious and Yves looking worried. She gave them both a tight smile before heading down the hallway.

A second later, she heard Parker's voice. He didn't chase after her, but he made sure that she heard him by raising his voice. "This isn't over, Jess. We're not over. You should know by now that I will never give up on you and you're not getting rid of me that easily!"

* * *

 **7** **th** **April 2014**

Working in a zoo wasn't as fun as people imagined it being. There were some tedious tasks to be done, one of which being preparing the food for the animals. This morning, Vivienne was unlucky enough to be the one given that job. It was easy enough, slicing and dicing fruit and veg that would be dished out to various groups of the zoo's animals later in the day, but it was boring work to be doing at eight in the morning on a Monday.

She got into a rhythm, humming to herself absentmindedly like she often did when losing herself in her job. It helped her to focus and tune out the world around her, so much so that she didn't realise a colleague had joined her in the kitchen until someone sidled up next to her and grabbed an apple from her pile of fruit to be chopped up.

She jumped, her head spinning to the side to see who was in the room with her. She was even more startled to see Uriel stood there, already beginning to cut into the apple. She hadn't seen him for ten days – she'd been counting – since they split up, and she'd been thinking about him so much that it felt weird to actually be in his presence again. She looked away from him.

"Hey," she greeted him in a quiet voice. "I haven't seen you here lately."

"I took some time off," Uriel shrugged like it was no big deal. It was though; he never had time off work unless it was important. He didn't elaborate any further and they worked in silence for a few minutes.

Vivienne didn't know what to say to him. It hadn't been a very pleasant breakup for either of them, so it was awkward. It was the first time things had been this uncomfortable between them. Ever.

Just when it became almost too painful to bare, Uriel spoke again. "How are the boys? What did Cai end up doing for his art project? I know he was worried about it."

Vivienne froze, conflicted thoughts in her head. On one hand, she was sad that she'd removed Uriel from the boys' life – they were obsessed with him and had been asking about him all the time over the last week. Yet she also felt herself smiling over the fact that Uriel still cared for and thought about the boys.

"They're good, thank you. He actually ending up going for the whole idea of covering his hands in paint and seeing what happened. In the end, he said it was a forest and the handprints were all the leaves, but you know, I just wasn't seeing it."

Uriel let out an unexpected bark of laughter. "I told him to go for the macaroni photo frame, it's a classic. Mom has at least one from all of us, you know."

Vivienne smiled fondly at the image that brought to her mind, not looking up at him. She couldn't look at him. If she did, she was scared she may just burst into tears because it felt bittersweet being with him again.

"Well, I'm glad they're okay," Uriel continued, either unaware of or ignoring the thoughts in her head. "I miss them." He put the knife down flat on the cutting board, and Vivienne was aware of him moving to stand behind her. He put his hands on the counter on either side of her, pressing his body against hers so that she was stuck between him and the kitchen counter. She hadn't been expecting it at all and barely had time to let out a breathy gasp before he moved his lips to her ear. "I miss you as well," he whispered, his voice sending a shiver down her spine.

"We can't do this." Her voice was just a whisper too, all she was capable of in that second.

"You made a mistake," was his response. "You shouldn't have ended things with me… Give me another chance."

She slowly turned around in his arms. He didn't make it easy for her, not moving an inch and keeping his arms solidly on either side of her. Once facing him, she could feel almost every part of their bodies touching and it was highly distracting. Taking a deep breath to compose herself, she met his eyes, about to ask him to back away but she didn't get the chance to.

His lips smashed against hers, warm and familiar. She acted on instinct, arms lifting up to wrap around his neck in an attempt to hold him against her. His hands grabbed her hips and she melted against his touch, losing herself in the kiss. Uriel's kisses had always been so amazing and today was no exception. They were a welcome distraction to the mess that was their relationship and if she could have just kissed him all day, she would have.

But she couldn't, and the kisses could only be a distraction for so long.

She broke the kiss, tears welling in her eyes. The kisses had acted as a painful reminder of how much she loved him and how… He didn't love her. Why did he have to keep doing this to her? Why keep stringing her along when he knew how much it was hurting her?

"Nothing's changed," she told him, voice breaking. "I can't be with a man who is in love with someone else."

Uriel had a desperate look in his eyes. "I know, but that's just it. I _want_ things to change, Viv. I just- I need you to give me another chance. Please, just take me back and I swear things will be different."

"It's not that easy, Uriel," she argued, removing her arms from around his neck. She pushed on his chest but he didn't step back. Sighing, her arms dropped to her sides. "You can't just say that things will be different and you'll stop loving her. You need time to get over her, and I think you should do that on your own without me around."

"I tried that! I only started to move on when I met you, and yeah, I still love her, but before you the thought of dating someone else was just absurd to me. I need you around for this, you help me stop thinking of her."

Vivienne's whole being was screaming at her to accept what he was saying and kiss him again. She'd been miserable without him this past week and she wanted nothing more than to be his girlfriend again. But as she had just said to him, it wasn't that easy.

"I told you. I can't be with you, it'll hurt too much."

Uriel stared at her. It looked like he was thinking hard about something. She noticed that his cheeks were flushed and his eyes still looked desperate – it was as if he was determined to get her back, no matter what he had to say or do. Finally, he blinked, having apparently come up with a solution.

"How about this?" He suggested, voice eager. "You come to England with me to meet this Frank Gibbs guy and we'll see if he can fix your mind. We'll go just as friends and I promise, I won't try anything with you. Then, if it turns out we are soulfinders we'll give our relationship another go. I'll do whatever it takes. If you wanted to move away from Wrickenridge, away from Hazel, then I would do it in a heartbeat. If we're not soulfinders? Well then, we'll come home and we'll just stay friends. We have to work together and I don't want to lose you, so friends is better than nothing. What do you think?"

"I don't know," Vivienne hesitated. "I mean, it sounds okay in theory but… I'd have to leave the boys, and I could end up devastated with the answers we get. I just don't know if I'm willing to put myself through that."

"At least think about it," Uriel replied. "Please." Vivienne nodded. She could at least give him that. "Thank you," he smiled, looking relieved.

Uriel finally moved away from her then and she felt cold all of a sudden, not having his body so close to hers. He went back to where he'd been working, picked the knife up again, and got back to work without another word.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Katie and the other cheerleaders get a surprise.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note:  
Please remember to review! :)

* * *

 **16** **th** **April 2013**

Excitement strummed through Jessamine's veins as she walked to the gym twenty minutes or so after classes for the day had ended. Her plan to become popular again was about to get put into motion and she couldn't wait – today had been another day of people having the nerve to look at her funnily, something they never would have done when she was 'Queen Bee' before the accident. She didn't think she could stand that for much longer.

Before entering the gym, she pulled a small mirror from her bag to check her appearance: hair was perfectly straight, eye-make up and dark red lipstick done to perfection, and a smug smile on her face. Yes, she was ready for them. Pushing down on the metal bar that opened the back door, she swung the door open and strolled inside. She let it slam closed behind her, alerting the girls inside to her presence.

Decked out in the blue uniforms, the cheerleaders were all in various poses as they stretched, the coach stood off to the side writing on a clipboard. Jessamine saw various expressions of shock on the girls' faces as she walked towards them, the smile never falling from her calm face. She wasn't nervous around them – she knew everything about all the girls, even their dirty little secrets; it should be _them_ that were nervous.

Katie pulled herself out of a stretch and stood up straight, leading the other girls to stop stretching too. "Jessamine," she called out through gritted teeth, trying and failing to make her tone sound pleasant. "Are you lost? You're not on the team anymore, remember? That means you're not allowed at practice."

Jessamine simply walked over to the coach, a slim yet muscular dark-haired woman, and folded her arms across her chest, letting the coach do the talking.

"Actually, I have reinstated Jessamine onto the team," Coach Dena told Katie.

Jessamine felt like laughing as she watched Katie's face twist into a totally confused grimace as she blurted out, "that doesn't even make sense! I mean, she lost her leg. She can't exactly dance or tumble anymore, she's too, you know, _disabled_!"

Savannah, a dark-skinned girl a year younger than Jess, who had hung onto Katie since joining the squad two years ago, gasped and took a step away from her friend. "Katie, you can't say that. That's so mean."

Jess was still smiling. Inside, her confidence had shattered slightly but she refused to let Katie see how much her words had affected her. Disabled. It felt like such an ugly word and was something Jess refused to identify herself as despite the loss of a limb. 'Disabled' made it sound like she was somehow less than other people and not capable of what they could do, and she didn't want to think of herself like that.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Jess looked straight at Katie with hard eyes as she spoke. "I'm going to be so much more than just a dancer."

Coach Dena took over the explanation then, blunt as always. "Jessamine approached me with a proposition yesterday to get herself involved with the team again, and I had to agree that she was an asset to us and under the circumstances, she deserves another chance with us. Jess will be acting as my assistant, helping me with the choreography and to manage you as a team. I am also giving her the title of honorary co-head cheerleader."

"What?!" Katie all but screamed, literally stamping her foot in anger. "But she's not a cheerleader! I worked hard to become head cheerleader, and now you're taking that away from me? This isn't fair. I haven't done anything wrong!"

Coach Dena stayed calm, used to outbursts like this from teenage girls. "I'm not taking anything away from you, Katie. You and Jess will be co-captains and I expect you to work together to figure out what is best for the team. And as for the rest of you," she addressed the other girls, "I want you to know that your captains are there for you to go to with any problems you may have. Whether or not that's something to do with the dance, or some petty argument that you're having with each other, you go to them and they will sort it out. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

Katie stood fuming but managed to keep her mouth shut, as did the others although some were clearly uncomfortable with the situation. When Jess had returned to school, some had been like Katie and been outright nasty to her whilst the others had simply ignored her as if she didn't exist. As if they hadn't all been 'best friends' before the accident. If Jess was to have control over them again, she had to put fear into them and let them know she wasn't going to easily forgive their behaviour.

Looking at the girls, she faltered for a moment. Jess wasn't a mean girl really, she just had to act like one to keep them wrapped around her little finger – and she'd meant what she said to Yves: she needed to gain control again, she wanted her old life back so she didn't have to deal with all these changes anymore. So she had to keep up the mean girl act, at least while she was at school anyway. She needed life to be easy again.

So, Jessamine lifted her head and smirked at the girls, looking down on them with a look that showed she thought they were inferior to her. "I'm back, girls. You better get back to stretching because I promise I'm not going to go easy on you."

* * *

"-You should have seen their faces!" Jess laughed on the other end of the phone. Yves kicked his bedroom door closed behind him, having left the living room as soon as she called so his family didn't overhear their conversation. Hearing her tale of what went down at cheerleading practice made him glad that she was happy, but he himself wasn't too keen on the idea of her being involved with those girls again.

He liked the Jessamine he knew now and wasn't looking forward to the return of mean Jess, yet at the same time he understood why she wanted to take control again after what she had been through. He didn't want to voice his mixed feelings to her and upset her, instead he just silently hoped that their friendship would remain the same and she wouldn't forget him like she had years ago.

"Katie was quiet for the rest of practice," she continued. "No one else really commented about me being back, they just got on with it. They still don't like me though, but whatever. I know they'll never be real friends to me again anyway. Savannah surprised me though, she gave me a few friendly smiles and even rolled her eyes at Katie sulking. Maybe I could be friends with Savannah again? I was never that close to her, but I could do with a girlfriend, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that," Yves replied, lying down on his back on his bed. "I hope you do make up with her, then you can spend all your time with her and I can finally get a break from you."

Jess laughed at his joking and Yves felt a silly grin on his face. It felt nice being able to joke around with her and not be so serious all the time like he always was – even with Travis the conversations were about school and their life plans. It was much less stressful having a conversation where he could laugh.

"Oh, well _thank_ you. It's great to know how you really feel," Jess replied sarcastically, giggling. "Next time, just tell me- Miso! You're too big to sit on my knee, and you're not a cat. Get down. Go to your own bed." After a moment, she returned her attention to Yves. "Sorry. Dog drives me crazy sometimes."

"Can I ask you something? What did you mean when you said it made sense to call Miso a name that translates to smile?" It's something that he had been wondering ever since she'd said it but had only now been presented with the right moment to ask it.

Jess took a few seconds to answer. "After the accident, I was miserable," she finally said, quiet and calm. "In the hospital, I mostly just cried and screamed at everyone, even the nurses when they were giving me pain meds." Yves was aware of this already, having been told by his brother Xav who'd been working on that ward then. "When we went to Ohio, I was even more miserable. I'd just broken up with Parker, I didn't have any of my friends around me, and even if I had done I didn't want anyone to see me.

"I went to physio and therapy, but I didn't make much progress because I was in a state of mind where I refused to accept that I'd lost my leg.

"I had nightmares of the accident every night, just remembering the whole accident over and over again – talking to Zed and Isaac, sitting back down, being thrown off my seat as the bus rolled over… It was awful, Yves. I was struggling to adjust to my new life and all the changes I'd have to make. I felt like I'd lost everything."

Yves hadn't been expecting the conversation to turn in this way but if she wanted to confide in him, then he wasn't going to stop her. He was her friend and he wanted to be there for her.

"Do you still feel that way? Like you lost everything? Do you still have nightmares?" He asked softly.

"Sometimes I feel like that, yeah. When I'm in pain or I want to do things I used to do, like gymnastics, I miss my old life. There are some things that I can never get back. And yeah, I still have nightmares but not as often anymore. My therapist always says that it's going to be a long recovery, but I'm getting there – and I agree with her, I do think that I'm coming to terms with it now. I feel much better now."

"Good," he smiled. "So… Miso?" He prompted to get the conversation back on track.

"Yeah, right. My omma came back home one day with Miso. I'd always wanted a dog but my parents had always said no, but when she turned up with Miso I wasn't happy. I mean, I wasn't happy about anything those days. But Miso didn't leave me alone, she became a distraction – I was in charge of feeding her, walking her, and making sure she was healthy. She never left my side, even when I was having one of my really bad days."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, most of my days were bad days. Sometimes I had good days, where I'd wake up feeling light and I wanted to be outside and make an effort in physio, but other times I had really bad days. Days where nothing could get me out of bed at all, I wouldn't eat and I refused to talk to my parents.

"Through all of it, Miso was by my side. She was the first thing to make me smile after the accident, which I guess was my omma's plan when she brought Miso home. So, that's why Miso is the perfect name for her," she finally finished her explanation. "I guess I could have cut that down into a much shorter story," she laughed.

"That's okay, honestly. I'm your friend, you can always talk to me about this." He didn't add that a small part of him hoped it would lead to more than a friendship between them, as ridiculous as the idea seemed. "I don't like the thought of you ever feeling that way again, so you can always talk to me about anything. Okay?"

"Okay," she replied and he heard a smile in her voice. "You know, I'm really glad that we're friends again, Yves. I missed you."

"I missed you too." The conversation was starting to get a bit too deep and corny for him so he changed the subject. "So, you need any help with your algebra homework?"

* * *

 **13** **th** **April 2014**

"One second!" Uriel shouted out when he heard a knock on the front door of his apartment. He glanced around the living room one last time to make sure it was clean and everything was in the right place before he headed to the front door. Taking a deep breath and using a hand to flatten down his messy hair, he finally opened the door.

Vivienne stood there, red hair down in curls, a black coat buttoned up to her neck. She looked lovely, Uriel thought, but then she always did. She looked a little nervous but managed to give him a small smile. "Thanks for letting me come over."

"No problem. Come on in," he welcomed her into his home, closing the door behind her and leading her over to the sofa. Once seated, he looked at her. She looked uncomfortable here, which he hated as it was just another reminder that they were no longer a couple. He hadn't seen much of her this week as their work schedules had conflicted, and wondered if she felt as bad about that as he did. "So, why did you want to come over?"

Viv twirled a strand of her hair and pursed her lips, letting out a gentle sigh. "I've been thinking about what you said on Monday and I wanted to talk to you about it. I thought it'd be better to do that in person rather than over the phone."

"Okay," Uriel nodded, attempting not to look or sound too enthusiastic. "Have you made a decision?"

Viv nodded too and said, "I want to be with my soulfinder one day; I want that happy ending. Whether that turns out to be you or some other guy, I won't know unless someone helps me use telepathy. So far this Frank Gibbs person is the only option I have and I think I have to take this opportunity. So I agree to your deal: we'll go to England to meet him, as friends, and we'll get the truth. If we are soulfinders, then I'd be more than happy to try a relationship with us." She smiled at him warmly, her eyes lighting up. "I really hope that's the case, Uriel."

"I hope that too," he whispered honestly. He couldn't wait to phone Hazel after Viv left so he could tell her the good news that he might actually have found his soulfinder and be able to move on. That in just a short amount of time he might know that Vivienne was the woman he was destined to have a future with. "I guess we better start making arrangements then so we can go to England as soon as possible."

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** A quiet walk in the woods turns out to be dangerous!


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note:

If you hadn't already noticed, I've started a new Finding Sky story called Once The Storm Is Over. Feel free to check it out! :)

* * *

 **4** **th** **May 2013**

Yves turned the engine of his car off and stepped out onto the sidewalk, greeted by tall trees edging the woodlands that surrounded the town. Looking around, he didn't see a single soul about, kind of strange for a Saturday afternoon but Yves guessed that most people were probably out enjoying the rare sunshine.

He pulled his phone out of his back jeans pocket and read the text he'd received this morning.

 **Meet me by the woods on the end of Baker Street at 1 today. I have something I want to show you xxx**

Yves had no idea what Jess wanted to show him and why she would choose somewhere so quiet and empty. He looked around, but couldn't see her-

"Yves!" Her head popped around the side of one of the trees, causing him to jump. He saw that she was wearing simple clothes: jeans, ankle boots, and a waterproof jacket, with beige lipstick and blue eyeshadow on.

"Jeez, Jess. You almost scared the life out of me," he groaned, a hand on his chest as his heartbeat started to slow down.

Jess giggled, a goofy grin on her face. She seemed to be bouncing with excitement, reminding Yves of when they were kids and the adults always used to say: 'That Jess, she has so much energy she doesn't know what to do with it. She's practically bouncing off the walls.' It was rather endearing and it made him unable to not smile himself.

"Come on." Her hand beckoned him towards her. "I want to show you something."

Curious, and more than a little confused, he went over to her and caught sight of Miso chasing something in the distance. As Jess led Yves down the trail in the woods that had been set out years ago for people to walk through, Miso rushed over to trot alongside them.

Yves didn't question Jess when she left the trail, simply followed her through brambles and watched his step on the uneven ground. When they came across a fallen tree, Yves stepped over it first then turned around to help Jess over. He tried to look like he hadn't noticed her wincing in pain when her left leg hit the floor a little too hard – he knew that she'd hate him mentioning one of her weaknesses.

Finally, they came into a clearing with a rundown shed in. In a sing-song voice, Jess said, "Ta-da!"

Yves wasn't sure what was so special about this shed. It was small and the wood was rotting, the door hanging off its hinges. Ivy grew on the outside walls of the shed, and a low tree branch touched along one side. "Uh…" Yves tried to come up with something to say. "I mean, it's… It has charm?"

Jess laughed out loud and sat on the low branch, waiting until Yves sat next to her before she continued. "No, no. I know that it looks horrible but there's a story behind it. You've probably heard of it before, everyone has." She took a breath before telling the myth that Yves was all too familiar with. "Years and years ago, there was a couple who were madly in love. They were perfect for each other in every way and called each other their soulmate. Then something terrible tore them apart and the man was too heartbroken to stay in town with all the memories they had there together. So he built this shed and lived here, never venturing into town because he was too scared of seeing his lost love. But then, taking him by surprise on a beautiful sunny day, his lost love turned up at the shed and declared that she missed him. They kissed right there, outside the door of the shed, before heading back into town where they spent the rest of their lives together. The man didn't bother with the upkeep of the shed after that because he had no need to. Nature took over and this is the result."

"I've heard that for years," he admitted to her, rolling his eyes. "Everyone in town has. Can't say that I've been here before though, it's never really been something that I wanted to find."

"Me neither. But once, after a bad argument with Parker, I took a walk to calm myself down and ended up here by chance. I guess I enjoyed the romanticism behind the tale attached to the shed and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I come here whenever I need to be alone."

"What's romantic about this place? It's a crumbling mess and the man in the story was a coward when he ran away. If he really loved her, he would have stayed in town and fought for her after something 'tore them apart'," he made quotation marks as he said the last three words. "It's a load of rubbish."

"Are you kidding?! It is _so_ romantic! He gave up everything in his life when he lost her because he didn't see the point in anything without her. How tragic is that?" She let out a little, dreamy sigh. "I wish I had a guy that loved me so much that I meant the whole world to them."

"I thought that's the way it was with you and Parker," Yves said casually, not wanting to bring Parker into the conversation but needing to say it.

Jess shrugged her shoulders and looked away from him. "I guess it was a little bit, yeah. But I feel like if I meant absolutely everything to him, he wouldn't have been spiteful enough to be with other girls whenever we broke up. I wouldn't have done the same thing to him either. The good times we had together were great but… I don't know. I'll always love him; he was my first everything. But there's no going back to how things were, not anymore."

"I find that hard to believe," Yves softly said. He felt like he was trying to get Jess to go back to Parker, which wasn't at all what he wanted, but he had to get this off his chest and get her talking about him so she wasn't bottling it all up anymore. "Even when we were kids, it was always you and Parker. You two getting together was inevitable, I reckon. I think everyone just thinks you two are a done deal, and that you'll end up getting back together eventually and getting married and having attractive children."

"It's not going to happen." Jess sounded sad and wistful. She shook her head before saying, "It was always so volatile between us and I don't want to be in a rocky relationship again. We always tried to make it better between us but there'd always be something that'd ruin things. I'm not ready to date again, but when I am, I want the opposite of Parker. I just want something different, you know?"

She stared at him for a second before giving him a forced grin. "Let's not talk about Parker. I brought you here to thank you for everything you're doing for me. I know I've said thanks a thousand times, but I wanted to do something for you and this was the only thing I could think of. I'm letting you share my hideaway."

Yves smiled, accepting the change of subject easily. At least he understood now why she was so cold towards Parker at school. He was slowly starting to piece things together to understand the way Jess thought which helped him get to know her better.

"Well, I'll treat the shed with respect then," he answered her, chuckling.

Suddenly, Miso started barking repeatedly at a loud volume. She had been doing her own thing whilst Yves and Jess had been talking and was now out of sight, but they could definitely hear her.

"What the-"

"Something's wrong," Jess stood up quickly. "I've never heard her shout like that."

They went to find Miso, with Jess panicking as she called the dog's name. They found her a few minutes away, barking still like crazy. Her body was tense, tail tucked between her legs and her ears pulled back. She snarled and pawed the ground as if about to attack.

Yves looked ahead of them and saw a man stood there. He was Korean, his dark hair slicked back, and he was wearing a black suit and tie. He looked smart yet intimidating, and totally out of place off the trail of the woods. Yves realised that he recognised the man as being the person sat in a car outside Jess' house a couple of weeks ago.

"Hey, there's your uncle," he said to Jess. He briefly wondered why the man was just stood there and why Miso would react this way towards a family member.

Jess spun to face him, confusion written across her features. "What? He's not my uncle, why would you think that?"

"You said your uncle was coming to visit and this guy was outside your house the night I dropped you off after the party. I just assumed…" He supposed it was maybe a little dim of him to think that just because the guy was Korean he was Jess' uncle, but he hadn't really thought much of it at the time. "He's not your uncle."

"No. I've never seen him before in my life."

They both turned their heads back to the guy and watched as he put his hand inside his suit jacket, producing a gun. He aimed the gun at them and pulled the trigger, the sound of the gunshot echoing in the air around them. Yves ducked, grabbing Jess' shoulder and pushing down so she did too, the bullet whizzing above their heads and narrowly missing them.

Due to his family helping the net catch criminals, they had quite a few enemies around the world. This meant that Yves had had plenty of training in self-defence and how to react in dangerous situations, training that came in handy now. He already knew the best solution in this particular situation: Run.

"Jess, come on! Run!" He tried to drag her away but she pulled out of his grip and ran back over to Miso, grabbing the dog's collar and tugging her away. Miso seemed to relent when she saw that they were running away from the man.

The three of them ran next to each other and Yves was pleased to see that Miso stayed tight by Jess' side, protecting her. When the next gunshot went off, Jess screeched and stumbled, losing her footing and hitting the ground with a thud. Yves knelt next to her, glancing backwards to see the man walking towards them at a leisurely pace as if he knew that the two teenagers didn't stand a chance against him. Miso put herself between Jess and the man, growling.

"Jess, get up," he gasped, grabbing her arm again.

"I can't. My leg… I've never pushed it this hard before, it hurts," she told him, tears welling in her eyes. The bang of another gunshot made them both jump and Yves had the feeling that one was just for fun on the man's part – he no longer had moving targets so surely he would have been able to hit them then. Who the hell was this psycho and why was he after them?

"You have to," he said desperately, terrified for both of them. He pulled her up and took her hand in his, pulling her into a slow jog. "You can do this, Jess, _please_."

She didn't reply out loud but she tightened her grip on his hand as they started to quicken the pace into a full on run again. Yves looked sideways at her and could see pain all over her face, but there was also determination there to keep going.

Yves had never been more proud of her.

Yet another bang went off and a moment later Yves felt something tear into his bicep. He gritted his teeth to stop himself from moaning in pain or making any noise at all that would distract Jess from running. He just had to get her out of the woods and into the open where there'd hopefully be more people around to deter the man from shooting at them again.

Yves longed to throw a fireball at the guy or use telekinesis to hit the man in the face with a branch or something, but it was just too risky despite how useful it would be. He couldn't risk exposing himself to the man, or even to Jess, and what if his aim was off and he started a full on fire in the woods? His parents would kill him.

They ran and ran, never letting go of each other's hand. When they finally broke through the treeline and onto Baker Street again, Yves breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar sight of his car. A woman walked on the other side of the street pushing a pram, not paying any attention to them.

"Yves," Jess said his name, out of breath. "I can't see him, I think he's gone."

Yves turned around and saw that she was right: the man had disappeared from sight. He felt himself finally relax.

"Oh my god! You're bleeding!" Jess let go of his hand and touched her fingers lightly against his right bicep, her eyes wide with panic still. "Yves-"

"I'm okay," he tried to calm her down. "It doesn't even hurt." That was a lie. He reached up to move her hand away, linking their fingers together again. With his other hand he pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts before clicking the call button. The phone was answered after four rings. "Trace? There's been a situation…"

* * *

After spending an hour or so at the police station recounting what had happened, Yves' older brother, a cop named Trace, drove Jess and Miso home. Trace was a nice guy and Jess decided that she liked him. He reassured her that Yves was at the hospital having his arm seen to and he was totally fine. Jess knew that she would still end up calling him later just to double check.

Once home, the first thing Jess did was take some painkillers for the aching in her leg. She couldn't believe that she had had such a workout and hadn't collapsed – she hadn't thought she was capable of that just yet. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe she was just stronger than she thought. Whatever it was, she wasn't going to push herself like that again for a while yet, not wanting to risk overworking her leg.

She searched the fridge for something nice to eat, feeling disappointed when there was nothing there she wanted. Leaving Miso at home, she caught a taxi to the local supermarket.

Walking around, she began to fill her basket with comfort food she felt she needed after such a stressful day: ice cream, chocolate bars, chocolate cake, jam donuts… She was ready to stuff her face on the treats.

When she turned onto the aisle where the pizzas were, she stopped when she saw a familiar person. Kelly Zimmerman, Parker's mom. She was wearing her nurse's scrubs, these ones being white with little teddy bears on them, and was struggling to push a trolley with a dodgy wheel. Her dark hair was tied into a messy bun at the top of her head, and she looked more worn out than usual. Kelly was only in her mid-thirties but she looked a few years older in her exhaustion.

Jess thought about turning around and avoiding Kelly and any awkwardness, but Kelly had always been so lovely to her even when she and Parker weren't together, so she didn't want to be that rude. When she saw Kelly smack the trolley in frustration, she strolled over to the woman with a friendly smile on her face.

"Hey, Kelly. Would you like some help?" She offered, reminding herself that she'd been raised to respect her elders and be polite.

"Jess!" Kelly beamed and accepted the help. She carried Jess' basket whilst Jess pushed her trolley. They made small talk for a few minutes before Kelly said, "I haven't seen you since the accident, so I just wanted to say that I'm glad you're okay. I was so sorry when I heard what happened, and I know that Parker was terrified for you – it was awful seeing him like that. You're okay now though, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now," Jess replied, nodding her head. "I'm getting there. How are you? You look a little tired, if you don't mind me saying."

Kelly sighed. "I've been doing more shifts at work recently. I have to; we need the money. I'm having to rush around here now so I can get home and make some more calls. I'm working tonight and Parker hasn't been home for a few days."

"Really? That doesn't sound like him," Jess frowned, worried. She had wondered why she hadn't seen Parker at school, not that she'd been purposely looking out for him.

"He's staying with my nephew in New York. He's told me where he is but I haven't heard from him since. I'm not rushing him to come home, he needs his space sometimes, especially now. The only thing is the usual babysitter I have when Parker isn't around can't work tonight, so I'm going to have to call around before my shift. I'm sure I'll find someone."

"I'll do it," Jess replied instantly. She knew that once she had time to properly think this through she might regret it, but she wanted to help Kelly out. She deserved it.

"Oh no, you don't have to do that," Kelly said as she grabbed a box of tea bags from a shelf. "I'm sure you have better things to do on a Saturday night."

Before the accident, that would have been the truth. However tonight Jess' plans consisted of watching Netflix and eating all the junk she was about to buy. "Honestly, I don't mind. The girls love me, and you know that I know their routine. I helped Parker babysit them plenty of times."

"Well, I suppose it would be better if the girls were comfortable with the person watching them, especially Amy…" Kelly thought this through before giving Jess a very grateful smile. "I would really appreciate that Jess. Thank you."

"It's no trouble, just tell me what time to come around and I'll be there."

As they continued making their way around the store, Jess silently added some bags of sweets to her basket for Parker's little sisters. They meant a lot to Parker so she'd always tried to get them to like her, so it was just habit to do something nice for them.

Jess just hoped that everything went smoothly tonight, with it being the first time she'd babysat the girls without Parker there.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:** Jess babysits Parker's little sisters.


End file.
